


A Year in the City

by witches_only_work_on_wednesdays



Category: One Piece
Genre: Background Relationships, F/M, Friends With Benefits, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:15:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 17
Words: 122,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25515631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/witches_only_work_on_wednesdays/pseuds/witches_only_work_on_wednesdays
Summary: Detective Tashigi is overworked and underpaid. Her only friends are her quirky coworkers and they're more of a family really. She has no personal life and doesn't want one. Too bad her neighbors are the extremely friendly and extremely nosy Straw Hats.
Relationships: Roronoa Zoro/Tashigi
Comments: 72
Kudos: 83





	1. April I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Night Shift kicks Tashigi's butt.

"Why is it when something happens, it’s always you three?” Tashigi asked as she rubbed her temples and frowned at the three young men that leaned against her squad car. Smoker was down the street a bit with the other offenders of the late night, booze fueled brawl; he’d called for another squad car. Curious party goers and bar patrons skirted the squad car as they craned their necks to see who’d been arrested before they returned to the crowds of the infamous party street.

  
“Don’t look so stressed, Four eyes.” Roronoa Zoro said with a lazy smirk, “We didn’t start the fight.” They never started fights and if they did, it was for a good reason.

  
“Don’t call Tashigi-chan that, Marimo.” Vinsmoke Sanji said viciously, cigarette dangling from his lips. Tashigi wondered how he’d lit it with his hands cuffed. “She is a lovely lady with glasses.”

  
“I appreciate the complement, Sanji-san.” Tashigi sighed, “But frankly he’s given better nicknames.” She turned to the green-haired man. “Are you drunk, Roronoa?” Zoro rolled his eyes.

  
“Shishishi, silly Tashi,” Monkey D. Luffy chuckled and stuck his face close to the bespectacled policewoman, “you know Zoro doesn’t get drunk. Why isn’t Smokey over here? I wanna talk to him.” The younger black-haired man bounced excitedly on the squad car, as if his hands weren’t cuffed behind his back.

  
“Tashigi.” She corrected halfheartedly. He never remembered, but she tried anyway. “Yes, I know Roronoa doesn’t get drunk, but the alternative is that he’s off his game.”

  
“Highly unlikely, Officer Glasses.” Zoro snorted and settled more comfortably on the squad car, adjusting for the three swords at his waist. Tashigi hadn’t bothered to take them, that was one more headache than she wanted.

  
Sanji slammed his foot in the swordsman’s face.

  
“Detective, Roronoa, if you’re gonna tease me do it properly.” She huffed, adjusted her glasses, and placed a hand on Shigure’s hilt. “Luffy-san, the Sargent is down there waiting for the other squad car. He’s making sure those men don’t run off or try to fight you again.”

  
“Why can’t you do it?” Luffy pouted.

  
“How dare you?” Sanji raged and tried to kick Luffy around Zoro. “Tashigi-chan should have to deal with those lowlife scum.” Tashigi felt her eye twitch.

  
“Sanji-san, I really appreciate the sentiment, but I can take care of myself.” Deep nose sigh. “In fact, I actually lost the coin toss. Loser had to watch you boys.”

  
Luffy’s horrified and betrayed look made Tashigi instantly regretful.

  
“Not that Sargent Smoker doesn’t love hanging out with you, Luffy-san.” Tashigi covered hurriedly. “It’s just that we’re very stressed these days and you guys are a little more excitable that we’re used to.” She focused on the Strawhat leader as Zoro and Sanji stifled snickers in her peripheral vision. “Maybe after we get off the night shift.”

  
“When’s that gonna be?” Luffy whined.

  
Tashigi wanted to whine with him. She and Smoker—her Sargent and partner—had been punted to Night Duty. Lieutenant Hina and Captain Garp had tried to stop it, but Deputy Chief Tsuru couldn’t even stop it, so really what could they have done. They had to wait on night shift until Chief of Police Sengoku could convince Police Commissioner Sakazuki that Smoker’s attitude hadn’t been directed at him personally, but rather at everyone all the time. Garp had asked Captain Fujitora to put in a calming word to the Former-Captain-Akainu-current-Police-Commissioner, but it was a poor choice given their animosity.  
Tashigi did not like being grown-up grounded for her superior’s sass or having to arrest drunk party girls and frat boys outside of clubs every night. She knew Smoker liked it even less, but it was his fault, so she was unsympathetic.

  
“I don’t know,” Tashigi muttered darkly, “however long it takes for Fujitora-san and Smoker-san to apologize or for Police Commissioner Sakazuki to forget.”

  
“Sakazuki?” Zoro questioned, “Is he new?”

  
“Akainu.” She answered shortly. All three boys winced and Luffy curled in on himself a little, as if trying to protect the scar tissue they all knew rested at the center of his chest. “Suffice to say it might take several months.” She tried to make her voice lighter, like it absolutely didn’t bother her.

  
“Or a miracle.” Sanji huffed, “How dare he make such a beautiful woman suffer?”

  
“It’s only suffering if you think of it that way Sanji-san.” Tashigi said mildly.

“That’s some inner peace bullshit.” Zoro snorted. Tashigi wanted to kill him. Everything she did was a spectacle for this man.

“Don’t you meditate, Zoro?” Luffy asked. Zoro scowled and head butted the shorter man. “Ow! Zoro! That was mean.”

“It’s not the same.” The swordsman hissed, “I listen to the breath of all things.” He must’ve known it sounded hippy-dippy, meditative because his cheeks colored. Tashigi thought it sounded fascinating and wondered if this was the type of training one received in the tutelage of Dracule Mihawk.

“How is that not the same, Shitty Swordsman?” Sanji snickered and Zoro kneed him in the ribs.  
Sanji retaliated with a kick towards Zoro’s shoulder.

“It’s not the same.” Zoro snapped and dodged the kick. “Glasses is just lying to herself.”

“I resent that, Roronoa. I’m repeating it over and over until it’s true.” Tashigi said as she pushed herself between the two men and halted their fight.

If she didn’t intervene Zoro would break his own thumb to get out of his cuffs to attack the blond cook with his swords. She’d learned about his reckless disregard for his own body the hard way years prior. How many times a man could break his own thumb just to aim a slash at the same blond cook was mind boggling to Tashigi. Then again, didn’t she challenge him to a fight almost every time she was on or off duty? However, he’d busted out of his cuffs for actual serious reasons too, while Tashigi’s challenges where almost starting to feel childish in her mind, serious reasons nowhere to be found.

“Roronoa, no.” She ordered, “I am not in the mood to give you another lecture on the way to the hospital.” She turned to the source of the green haired man’s ire. “Sanji-san, no throwing kicks in hand cuffs. Wait until you’re in the drunk tank to fight.”

“We’re staying in the drunk tank?” Luffy complained, “I thought you were going to let us go once the other police car showed up?” Tashigi resisted his pouting puppy dog eyes. “They don’t feed us there.”

“Sorry, Luffy-san. Smoker-san is having a bad week.”

“What about you, Tashi?” The black-haired boy looked hopeful.

“As we have established Luffy-san, I too am having a bad week.” Ah, the pitiful pout, Tashigi was not going to cave. She already folded like a cheap table when it came to Koby’s quivering lip and she wasn’t going to add collapsing under the weight of the Straw-hat’s large eyes to it. “But perhaps I could convince Smoker to order a pizza for you.”

Damnit.

Tashigi pressed a thumb between her brows. Luffy’s delighted cheers added to her headache. A headache she’d had for three months now since the beginning of night shift. Perhaps longer, considering her experiences since moving to the G-5.

She glanced over at the three young men. Luffy, grinning, rested his chin on Zoro’s shoulder, the pizza had brought him over the moon. Zoro, used to the younger man hanging off him, adjusted his stance against the squad car so the smaller man wouldn’t have to strain. He listened halfheartedly to Sanji discuss his preferred type of pizza; booze wasn’t involved so he didn’t care. Sanji leaned eagerly towards Luffy, the discussion of the best pizza in town (besides his own) washing away the serious lines of his face.

Tashigi wondered why their delight came so easy, handcuffed and sitting on a cop car, and why hers’ seemed so far away these days. It was stress, no doubt, and the source a myriad of reasons. Smoker said she needed to reorient her sense of justice, her decision to play jump rope with that line regarding the Straw-hats was clearly eating away at her. Koby and Helmeppo thought she should work less, even though working less made her more stressed because she had no personal life. Hina said she needed a boyfriend and offered her the numbers of several good candidates. Jango and Fullbody dropped it one bar lower, stating the stress could disappear with a quick fuck.

The idea of a stranger between her legs sat uneasy in her stomach, but she wasn’t opposed to sex in an unattached relationship. It probably would take her mind off literally everything. Too bad the only men Tashigi knew were her coworkers or criminals.

Her eyes drifted to the green haired swordsman. Despite her best effort to keep a cool head, her attraction to Roronoa Zoro was slowly killing her. More so now than ever before, as she and Smoker had arrested various trios, pairs, and quartets of the Straw-hat gang almost every night for the past three months. Perhaps that is also where her headache came from.

“Head out of the clouds, woman.” A gruff voice ordered and Tashigi snapped to attention. Smoker stood behind her.  
She glanced behind her. Martinez and Smith were wrangling the three other men into the back of their car.

“Sorry, Sir,” she mumbled, “I was thinking.”

“You’re doing that too much these days.” Smoker huffed around his two cigarettes. The man usually smoked cigars, but he’d sworn off them until they were reinstated to the day shift. Tashigi’s lungs didn’t thank him.

“Smokey!” Luffy crowed and bounced off the squad car. “Tashi said you didn’t want to hang out with us.”

“She was correct.” Smoker growled as he pushed Luffy’s head down to wrangle him into the back of the car. Tashigi hauled Zoro off the squad car, ignoring the warmth of his arm underneath her hands.

“Be gentle with me, Glasses.” Zoro teased as Tashigi pushed his head down to avoid the edge of the door. Tashigi grimaced as her mind immediately focused on how unfairly soft his hair was.

He settled comfortably next to Luffy and smirked out at Tashigi; sadistic glee danced in his eye. Face red and ire raised, Tashigi huffed and stormed away so Smoker could put Sanji into the car.

She slid into the passenger seat as Smoker closed the door to the backseat.

Luffy babbled excitedly as Smoker dropped behind the wheel.

“I really want off night shift.” Smoker snarled and started the car.

  
*****************************************

Tashigi was having a pure garbage day.

Technically it was a pure garbage night bleeding into a pure garbage day.

After depositing the Monster Trio into the drunk tank, her and Smoker’s shift had deteriorated quickly. She’d been thrown-up on, punched, liquor spilt on her, and been shoved by aggressive drunks all night. The few serious felonies she and Smoker had caught had been terrible.

When they chased a jewelry store robber Smoker had taken a turn too close around a corner and now their squad car had a massive silver scrape along the side. Tashigi had chased and tackled a perp in a shoot-out, only to have a buddy of the other guy involved shoot her perp in the shoulder after she’d gotten him in handcuffs. He’d gotten away because her perp passed out and toppled backward onto her. Her final serious collar was a drug bust that ended with Smoker tackling both perps involved and Tashigi taking a kilo of cocaine to the face. It was wrapped so she inhaled nothing, but her glasses were knocked off her face. On her knees in a dark alley, scrambling for her glasses was not how she wanted to spend her police career.

A deep sigh dragged from her lungs and she hunched over her paperwork covered desk.

Her glasses lay abandoned on a stack of finished reports. There was a large coffee stain down the front of her baby blue dress shirt and dried blood splatter on her shoulder—this was her back up shirt, the pink floral one she’d been wearing at the beginning of the shift ruined by beer and vomit. At least her pants were black, which made it hard to see the gross water and vomit stains below the knees.

For three months she ended almost every shift covered in stains.

She just wanted to go home, shower, and sleep, but she wasn’t going to get that today. She’d get off work at 7am, and then, instead of going to gym and then sleeping, she and Smoker would pump themselves full of caffeine to stake out a suspected sex trafficker, called Mr. Baines, for the day shift. It was the only way they’d thought of to get off night shift.

They did this only when everyone else couldn’t, but it was happening too frequently for her to be happy. Tashigi was sure her blood was like 75% coffee, 15% energy drink, and then 15% red blood cells. Maybe some second-hand smoke in there from Smoker’s chain smoking.

Hina rolled in at 7 AM on the dot. She dropped a kiss on Tashigi’s head before she headed toward Smoker’s haze covered desk. Tashigi knew Hina was going to circle back after chewing her boyfriend out. Tashigi dropped her head in her hands and groaned. She’d hear about this later.

Smoker had never been upfront about his personal life with the Lieutenant, but night shift had clearly been hard on them. She’d never wanted to hear her superior sleepily mumble his relationship problems to her as they languished in the squad car. It’d make life easier on Tashigi if Smoker could swallow his pride and apologize to the short-tempered Police Commissioner, just so she could stop hearing about his lack of sex life. She didn’t want to think about it like she was working with her parents, but it sure felt like it and one didn’t want to hear about parents’ sexual problems.

“Yo, Tashigi, you look like shit.” Fullbody cackled and dropped his bag on her desk. Despite his rough remark, her pink haired weird uncle sat respectfully on the edge of the desk, as not to interrupt Tashigi’s mournful slump onto the paper covered surface. Fullbody pulled his name plate from the drawer and switched it with Tashigi’s.

It was his and Jango’s signal that she was to stop working. Which they would enforce with perverse glee, considering the time they’d thrown her and Smoker onto the sidewalk at Hina’s command.

“Shove it, Assface.” She replied grumpily and, for good measure, pushed his name plate into the garbage. The normally sweet and shy Tashigi had taken a bit of a hike due to her current predicament.

“Poor Goody-Two Shoes,” Jango sighed as he set a cup of coffee down in front of the groaning Tashigi. “Rough shift? And aren’t you and Sarge gonna stake out that asshole trafficker Baines again today?” For the third time this week was left out. The cigar smoking Sargent’s drive was only matched by their pink haired Lieutenant, which is why they made an amazing couple and why Tashigi was currently dying of sleep deprivation.

“Why can’t he just, I dunno, turn himself in?” Tashigi grumbled tiredly, “I want to go back to sleeping during the day and working at night.” She paused and tried to unscramble what was wrong in that sentence. “Wait, wait no…”

Jango and Fullbody cackled and patted Tashigi’s messy black hair.

“Cut it out.” She whined and swatted their hands away. “I want off the night shift. I’m too tired to think straight and I miss you guys so much, the Night Shift is kinda mean.” Tashigi was exhausted and rambling.

“What’d ya mean ‘kinda mean’” Fullbody asked as he pushed the cup of coffee into Tashigi’s hand; Jango helped her raise it to her lips.

“Last week, I asked Johnson to stop clipping his toenails in the bullpen—”

“SO, IT IS HIM.”

“Jango, focus, and he left a pile of toenail clippings and beard trimmings on my desk.” Tashigi continued hurriedly, as she could see Fullbody fuming because he’d been pulling trimmings from his keyboard for weeks. “Wexler and Yato got into an argument and then broke the printer and microwave in retaliation. Don’t even get me started on all the drunk people I’ve had to arrest. They’re so mean when you’re trying to book them for assault or belligerency.”

“They can’t be that bad,” Jango said, “I thought drunk girls were the nicest people?”

“They are,” Tashigi assured him, “until you have to arrest them for drunken disorderly. You have never been hurt until a drunk college girl tells you your glasses are tacky and you’re going to die alone for arresting her.” The young woman slumped over the desk again. “I apologize when I arrest them and tell them that they’re only going to spend the night in the drunk tank, but I still get insulted.”

“Looks like the coffee is getting you back to normal.” Fullbody said and Tashigi sat back up, lips pursed.

“Was I not normal before?” she asked.

“Not gonna lie,” Fullbody said with a pout, “You were a little snappy.”

“Sorry,” she apologized, “my life is going to pieces, but I shouldn’t take it out on you.”

“Hina is concerned for your health.” Hina’s delicate hand came down on Tashigi’s non-stain covered shoulder. They’d all gotten used to Hina’s interesting habit of speaking in the third person. “You should take some time off.”

“No, no, I’m fine,” Tashigi said quickly, standing at attention as Smoker came over, “Besides if I took time off all I’d do is go to the gym and watch TV in my apartment. Working is better.”

“See Hina,” Smoker said, “She’s fine.”

Hina looked at them both. They had bags under their eyes, reeked of cigarettes and coffee, and their hair was a mess; Smoker’s ruffled and askew, while Tashigi’s messy bun was greasy and limp. She knew it was no use arguing. Smoker was a stubborn old dog and Tashigi would follow him into the fucking ocean if she could.

“Hina won’t press the issue.” She said, throwing her hands up in defeat. “Now, go. You have work to do. Koby and Helmeppo are already on their way back from their shift staking out the trafficker.”

“Don’t need to tell me twice.” Smoker ground out. Tashigi was sure the suggestion for time off had been offered to him more privately and he’d turned it down. She was sure that harsh words had been traded and by the vein that jumped in Hina’s temple, the Lieutenant was about initiate one of the couple’s many infamous shouting matches.

“I’m going to release our most frequent guest from the drunk tank.” Tashigi said hurriedly and grabbed her glasses from the desk.

“Take your time, this is gonna be a good one.” Jango smirked and settled into Tashigi’s vacated chair. Fullbody ripped open a bag of chips. Her two weird uncles adored Hina and mildly loathed Smoker. For them, the couple’s shouting matches were blackmail fodder against Smoker and a chance to cheer on their beloved Hina.

Tashigi bolted as Hina opened her mouth to unleash a tirade.

She blew past Garp and Tsuru as they entered the main lobby.

She skidded to a stop in front of Pike’s desk by the holding cells.

“Hey, Pike,” she wheezed, “could I have the Straw-hat’s phones and wallets?”

“Of course, Tashigi-chan.” He cooed and pulled a small basket with the Monster Trio’s things. Tashigi gratefully accepted the basket, as well as the cell keys, and tried not to cringe at the gooey tone in Pike’s voice. Much like Jango and Fullbody’s dedication to Hina, the officers of the G-5 had a strange devotion to Tashigi.

Tashigi chalked it up to being one of the only single women in the precinct.

She strode down the hall of holding cells until she reached the Straw-hats.

The three boys shared a cell with several other men, but those men looked a little roughed up and were crammed into one corner while Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji stretched out languidly on three benches. Tashigi had, again, not taken Zoro’s swords. The precinct really couldn’t afford to lose another cell door to the Straw-hats.

“Picked a fight you couldn’t win?” Tashigi questioned the wide-eyed men crammed into the corner. They nodded vigorously. “Well, I’m here for them now.”  
Tashigi unlocked the holding cell door and Zoro’s good eye slid slowly open.

“Glasses.” He rumbled with a smirk. “Is it time to go already?”

“Well, it’s 7 AM and my shift is over.” She said shortly. “So, unless you want to stay longer, I’d leave now with me.” The grin that stretched across Zoro’s face was joyfully feral.

“Oi, Luffy,” he jabbed the sheath of Wado into Luffy’s side, “time to go.” He then turned and smacked Sanji in the face.

“Eh?” The black-haired boy mumbled sleepily and sat up. He rubbed his eyes and fixed his Strawhat on his head, before he focused on Tashigi waiting in the cell doorway. “Tashi!” He bounced to his feet. “Did you bring food?”

“Sorry, Luffy-san, but no.” She handed him his worn brown leather wallet and red encased phone. “You could go to Moda’s Dinner next door and get breakfast on Garp’s tab. He won’t notice a few more meals added.”

“Shishishi, that’s a good idea, Tashi,” Luffy grinned, “We can wait there until 8 AM too, then Nami can come pick us up.”

“You idiot.” Sanji grumbled, cigarette already in mouth, and accepted his navy wallet and bright blue phone from Tashigi. “We shouldn’t wake Nami-swan for this. Let’s call Usopp or Franky or Jinbe, the ladies shouldn’t be bothered.” His only exposed eyebrow furrowed at the dried blood on Tashigi’s shirt. “Tashigi-chan, have you been injured?”

“It’s not my blood.” Tashigi said, brushing off the man’s concern.

“But that is most definitely your coffee.” Zoro chuckled as he accepted his black wallet and dark green phone and glanced down at the exceptionally large coffee stain on her front.

“Maybe.” Tashigi gritted and closed the cell door firmly.

The young men followed her as she stalked back toward Pike’s desk. She practically slammed the little basket down in front of him.  
When she entered the main lobby, she saw Koby and Helmeppo standing nervously at the entrance to the bullpen. That and the audible shouting indicated that Hina and Smoker were far from done. The bespectacled pink haired boy caught her eye and tugged his blond partner over to her.

“Tashigi-san,” Koby said in his soft voice, “what is going on? Good morning, Luffy-san.” He added politely as the black-haired man latched onto his back. Helmeppo pursed his lips, Koby was his best friend, Luffy could hang off his own friends.

“My hypothesis is that Hina tried to persuade him to take time off to get…” she paused and looked between the two younger men, they already stuttered and flushed when Fullbody and Jango talked about sex, did they really need to know exactly what was causing the tension between their superiors? “…reacquainted with each other and he said no.”

“Why would he say no?” Helmeppo asked. “Also is that blood on your shirt?”

“Not my blood.” She dismissed. “Smoker-san thinks all his problems can be solved by getting off night shift. He can’t understand that problems in relationships need to be addressed immediately before they fester.”

“Like you would know.” Helmeppo scoffed.

“What’d you just say?” Tashigi hissed and Helmeppo went pale.

“That you have had many successful relationships and know exactly what you’re talking about.” The blond stuttered. Normally, such a jab would fluster his older sister figure and she’d stumble over herself explaining her logic. He hadn’t taken into account the steaming trash pile that was her life.

“That’s what I thought.” She hummed, the urge to take his knee caps had lessened.

“You had that coming, Helmeppo-san.” Koby said with mild amusement. “You know Tashigi-san has been more tense since night shift.”

“Who’s tense?” Tashigi snapped. The pink haired boy yelped and dove behind Luffy.

“Tashigi-chan,” Sanji crooned, “if you’re tense, I can give you a back rub or a shoulder massage.” She could almost feel his loving aura at her back. It made her cringe.

“Don’t offer that kind of garbage.” Zoro snarled and wacked the back of blond cook’s head with Enma’s sheath.

“The hell, Shitty Swordsman!?” Sanji growled and aimed for Zoro’s head.

“This is fun.” Luffy laughed and clambered onto Koby’s back. The pink boy adjusted naturally to Luffy’s sudden piggyback and smiled at the arguing duo.

“Oi, Straw-hat, that’s my best friend.” Helmeppo squawked indignantly and began to try and pry Luffy of Koby’s back. This started another shouting match.

Tashigi sighed as she stood amongst the arguing men. This really should be her daily life, just by the headaches it caused alone.

She dodged an errant fist swung by god knows who and entered the bullpen.

Hina and Smoker shouted at each other nose to nose, well nose to clavicle. Garp and Tsuru were bunched around them, trying to get the two to stop yelling like children. The entire precinct watched in resigned amusement. Several Beri changed hands, but what had been bet about this time Tashigi couldn’t say.

Jango and Fullbody had finished their bag of chips. They shouted encouragements at Hina and heckled Smoker from the desk.

“If Smoker-san ever stops shouting, please tell him I’ll be waiting in the car.” She told them as she gathered her things into a duffle and strapped Shigure to her belt, service weapon having been stowed safely in her desk hours before when she started paperwork.

The two older men ruffled her hair and said they would.

Tashigi returned to the main lobby to find Koby had assuaged Helmeppo’s rage and Luffy stood sandwiched between his two snarling friends; Tashigi was sure it was Koby’s clever way to halt a brawl.

“Koby,” she said as she stood before them again, “Do you have a spare shirt?” The boy always carried three.

“Absolutely.” He answered genially and reached into his own duffle to get it.

“Don’t you usually have an extra shirt?” Helmeppo asked, brow quirking behind his sunglasses.

“This is my extra shirt.”

“What happened to the first one?” Zoro asked with a smirk. “Coffee again? Spaghetti sauce?” He had never let her live that down. She spilled lunch on herself one time while with his crew and he holds onto it forever.

“Vomit and beer.” Tashigi scowled. All five male faces twisted into looks of queasiness and revulsion. Koby handed her a white dress shirt without comment. Not the best color for her to wear, given her track record, but she would take anything stain free at that point.

“Tashigi-chan,” Sanji crooned, “You can have my shirt if you want.” He was already reaching for his collar, before Zoro smacked him in the face with Sandai’s sheath.

“Stop being gross.” He hissed.

“I’m fine with Koby’s shirt, Sanji-san.” Tashigi said, rather glad Zoro stopped the overly affectionate cook from stripping.

“I’m okay with it too, Sanji-san.” Koby said and ignored the blond man’s snarls of ‘no one asked you’. “Tashigi-san uses nice smelling detergent so getting shirts back from her is always a treat.”

“I could just tell you what detergent I use.”

“That makes it less special.” Helmeppo argued. “On really bad days we wear them to make us feel better.” Koby turned pink but nodded. Tashigi swelled with affection for her pseudo little brothers and she was certain that sticky softness they invoked in her was written all over her face.

“You guys sound like little kids.” Luffy said, like he wasn’t the biggest child himself. “What you’re supposed to do is get her to put perfume on things, like Nami does for me, that’s being an adult.”

“Nami-swan does what— “Sanji’s horrified gasp was cut off by Zoro’s chuckle and Koby’s honest voice.

“Tashigi doesn’t own perfume, Luffy-san.”

“Damnit, way to expose me, Koby.”

“Honestly, I’d been more surprised if you did own that stuff.”

“Shouldn’t you be going, Roronoa?” Tashigi gritted and glared at the one eyed swordsman. He shrugged and gestured towards Luffy.

“Up to him.”

“Luffy-san, I thought you wanted food from Moda’s Diner?”

“Yosh! Thanks for remembering, Tashi. C’mon guys.” Luffy dragged Zoro and Sanji towards the entrance, with the cook berating Luffy all the while for abusing Nami’s perfume.

Tashigi sighed in relief. Even while Zoro smirked at her over his shoulder, the worst of her problems were behind her. She would just change her shirt and wait for Smoker.

“Damnit, woman!” A particularly loud yell of Smoker’s drifted from the bullpen. “What do you want from me?”

“Hina wants you to do what Tashigi-san’s been telling you to do for three months.” Hina screeched. “Take time off to fuck me!”

Whether from the absence of third person or the complete horror of hearing the words out loud, Tashigi stilled. The entire floor had gone dead quiet, everyone stared in mute shock at the bullpen.

“Gods no.” Koby whispered, horrified and red faced.

“My innocent ears.” Helmeppo moaned.

Tashigi looked up from her disturbed gaze on the floor, only to make eye contact with a pink cheeked Zoro. Unbidden, images supplied from various fantasies crossed her mind connecting Hina’s desperate words with Tashigi’s hidden attraction to the swordsman.

She turned completely red.

“What the hell—TASHIGI!”

Her Sargent’s enraged and booming yell snapped Tashigi’s gaze from Zoro’s. The bespectacled policewoman felt Smoker’s killing intent and made the decision to save herself.

“Tactical retreat.” She shrieked and bolted out the precinct doors, just as everyone else in the lobby made themselves scarce as well.

***********************************

They had not spoken since he’d gotten in the car.

From the precinct to the office park where the sex trafficker’s front was Smoker had not said anything to her, just hunched over the wheel and filled the car with smoke. Tashigi had played with the hem of her borrowed shirt and accepted the secondhand smoke as a kind of punishment.

Tashigi managed to last an hour of stake out time before the fumes got to her. She cranked the window of Smoker’s white Hunter muscle car and gasped as the haze trickled out.

“Sir, I’m sorry.” She began quietly. “I shouldn’t have told Hina what we talked about in confidence. I just didn’t want her to misunderstand you and think that you didn’t want what she wanted. Also, I’m really tired these days and you are really stressed out and I thought that—”

“It’s fine, woman.” He interrupted. “She would’ve shouted something like it anyway. Hina’s probably the only person that doesn’t misunderstand this situation anyway.”

"Then why do you shut her out, sir?”

"It’d be a distraction. We need to focus.”

“I don’t know, sir,” Tashigi murmured and thought about his reasoning and her own, “wouldn’t taking a break and focusing on something else allow fresh ideas to circulate? We might even find the trafficker’s main holding location or think of a different way off night shift.”

“Maybe for you,” he huffed, “but for me the only way to do anything is in a relentless pursuit. Same with Hina.”

"Don’t you think that Hina even suggesting you take time off is an indicator that her priorities have changed?” Tashigi asked sourly and watched smugly as her superior’s brow furrowed.

“Hm.” Smoker considered the possibility.

“The last time something like this happened, you and Hina weren’t even dating.” Tashigi pressed. They might’ve not been dating but Tashigi knew her superiors’ relationship had been more than friends. “During that time didn’t you go out of your way to be with her? Isn’t that why you are dating now?”

“Yes.” Smoker answered stiffly.

“I just think Hina sees this as something like then.” Tashigi continued, “When it didn’t resolve itself the way you thought it would, there was enough affection in your relationship to give Hina a reason to follow you, even though it sidetracked her career greatly. Hina doesn’t know if night shift is permanent or not and she’s gauging your treatment of your relationship in this time as an indicator as to whether or not she should join you on night shift or dump you and fast track herself back to Marineford.”

Smoker’s eyebrows climbed into his hair.

Tashigi hated to reveal the speculations of her pink haired superior, but she rather liked them together and with her in the G-5. Despite his gruff demeanor, Smoker was the romantic it the relationship. He was ride or die with Hina, career be damned. Hina was the practical one, if she felt her time was being wasted, then she would put herself first. Smoker had proved before that their relationship could weather rough patches, now she was waiting much longer than usual for him to do it again.

“I’ve gotten complacent.” He said suddenly and Tashigi scrunched her nose in confusion. “Three years in a relationship and I thought I could half ass it through big problems. I just thought other things were worse.”

Other things, like him getting eviscerated by Doflamingo or the Marineford riots.

"Nothing is worse to a relationship than misaligned priorities.” Tashigi laughed quietly. “Just kiss your girlfriend and stop taking extra day time stake out shifts. We might be on night shift longer, but you’ll still have a girlfriend when this is over.”

Smoker squinted at her, trying to find his awkward subordinate underneath the visage of a confidant woman. At twenty-six, Tashigi seemed to have finally come out of her shell.

“You’ve been reading the advice section of the Revolutionary Rag again, haven’t you?”

Tashigi turned scarlet.

“They have really good tips!” She stuttered.

“You better not be trying to use any on that green haired punk”

"Smoker-san!”

The silence that rested between them was amicable. They watched their purple haired target talk to some shady looking dude in a dark blue car. Tashigi pulled out the camera and snapped a few shots of the license plate and the man’s profile.

“Here.” Smoker’s large hand reached over and took the camera. “Get some sleep, I’ll take pictures and notes. I’ll wake you up later when it’s your turn.”

“Are you also gonna use your phone to put in time off requests?” Tashigi asked as she reclined the seat all the way back and removed her glasses.

“Texting Garp right now.”

"Thanks, sir.” Tashigi yawned. “I hope you and Hina-san make sweet love and I never have to hear about how you two aren’t boning _ever_ again.”

“Gods, woman, go to sleep.”


	2. April II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The perfect apartment.

The muffled buzz of a lawnmower slowly roused Tashigi from one of the best sleeps of her life. With a deep hum she lifted her head off her pale pink pillows and blinked in the golden afternoon light. She wondered why she was in her own apartment and not the breakroom couch.

Ah, yes, she had a day off. Well, night off.

A sleepy and satisfied grin stretched across Tashigi’s face as she stretched her arms toward the ceiling. A week had passed since the blow out fight in the bullpen and Hina had gotten Smoker to take a day, er night, off. By extension Tashigi had gotten the night off too.

She’d practically bolted from the precinct at 7am that morning, skipped the gym entirely, and passed out under her dark pink comforter after shedding every piece of clothing except her undies. Dignity and pajamas were for people who had a regular sleep schedules and didn’t try to work themselves into an early grave.

Tashigi starfished happily on her queen bed and glanced around her rarely occupied apartment. Despite the minimal amount of time she spent there, Tashigi had still wanted it to be homey. Everyone had a hand in helping her furnish the small upstairs apartment.

The bed, settled under the window, had been Hina’s from her old apartment before she moved in with Smoker. The large wooden wardrobe placed against the wall opposite the bed, had been found by Jango and Fullbody; they didn’t say where but promised they cleaned it thoroughly, which was only mildly concerning. They had found most of the wooden pieces in her apartment, like the two night stands on either side of the bed or the dresser by the bathroom door. Tashigi kept her glasses there, as well as her mother’s jewelry box and one of her few family photos.

On that same wall Tashigi had placed the six remaining swords of her father’s collection, with a cushy emerald green armchair right under them. For most of the afternoon the light hit that spot exactly right for Tashigi to read in the sun. The green of the armchair didn’t match her bedspread or the navy rug that covered most of her bedroom floor; Tsuru had provided the rug.

Even though it didn’t match, Tashigi had all her favorite colors in her bedroom. Pale pink, navy blue, violet, and a deep green that may or may not be the same color as a certain one-eyed swordsman’s favorite hoodie. Koby once told her that the pink she liked so much was almost the same shade as his, Hina’s, and Fullbody’s hair. Tashigi wondered if her other favorite colors came from the people in her life. Her favorite shade of blue was suspiciously the same shade she remembered her mother’s hair being.

Tashigi grabbed her black sleeping tank top from its place folded next to her purple alarm clock and rolled out of bed. 1pm was not her preferred time to wake up but she had a good excuse.

She padded into the kitchen and headed for the coffee machine.

She’d been wary at first to have the only doors in her apartment be the two-bathroom doors and the main entry, but the square arches between rooms had grown on her.

She grabbed her ‘World’s Best Subordinate’ mug and started the coffee machine.

Smoker, pulling a strange skill from thin air, had built her a high-top kitchen table that served as an island and table. There where shelves under the table to hold her oatmeal and cereals, plus other dry snacks. It was the same beige color as the cabinets that came with the apartment. Smoker hadn’t made her chairs, stating that ‘I ain’t a damn carpenter. Table is the limit.’ Which had led to a city-wide chase for eight chairs tall enough to fit the table. There was now an eclectic collection clustered around her kitchen table, each chair matching each coworker’s personality completely.

Tashigi’s eyes bounced away from her strange kitchen set up to her living room.

Another rug from Tsuru graced the floor, a deep burgundy color to offset her navy couch, loveseat, and armchair. A wooden coffee table, provided by Jango and Fullbody, rested in the center of the room. Sandwiched between floor to ceiling bookcases was her rarely used TV; watching TV on her laptop in her room was more her speed.

At some point she’d been gifted two couch pillows with Helmeppo and Koby embroidered on them. Jango’s clever reference to the amount of times they’d crashed on her couch and loveseat when things in the police dorms got tense. They might’ve slept there more than she did.

She picked up her full coffee cup and wandered through her living room to her favorite room in the apartment. The study. It was parallel to her bedroom and there was a door to her bathroom in this room too. There were two bookcases on the back wall, framing a painting from the Wano province that had been gifted to her parents on their wedding day. Underneath the window on the right wall were filling cabinets. Tsuru’s third and final rug—emerald green—stretched across the floor.

She’d never had a study in any place she lived, but she wanted one. When she was little, Tashigi’s father—also a police detective—had a study, were he kept his own notes on closed and current cases.

Sitting in her own mustard yellow chair, behind a dark cherry wood desk—provided surprisingly by Garp, who said it was once his—Tashigi would fondly remember her father putting her in his lap as he did his paperwork. He’d called her Captain Tashigi and asked her if her officers were well.

Tashigi didn’t get to think about these things while she worked. She considered the painting on the wall. It was a perfect depiction of her parent’s relationship. A swordsman and a swordsmith painted in the depth of their craft.

Even though The Way had not fallen out of favor—you needed a permit to wield a sword, just like carrying a gun—swordsmithing was considered an antiquated career path. Her mother’s main clients had always been sword collectors, then again that’s how she met Tashigi’s father. If anyone wondered why Tashigi was obsessed with legendary swords, she told them it was genetic, just like her eyesight.

The buzz of the lawnmower had grown louder under her study window. Her landlady had said that she’d get some of her ‘boys’ to mow the lawn once a week, but Tashigi had never been around to see them.

Lips lightly pressed together Tashigi ambled slowly over to the window, perhaps she’d catch a glimpse of one of these mysterious lawn boys. Her landlady was a woman who seemed to prefer well-built men.

Tashigi never considered herself as an angel and devil on shoulder type person, but rather her shoulders were occupied by two entities she called Saint Tashigi and Succubus Tashigi. Saint Tashigi reigned over matters of justice and propriety; she had prudish sensibilities and blushed at the mention of kissing. Succubus Tashigi controlled confidence and sexual fantasies; she only provided one line of thought these days: fuck the green haired man.

There was a third entity, Swordswoman Tashigi who only provided input while a fight went down and sat neutrally on Tashigi’s head.

Succubus Tashigi had the reigns as Tashigi peered out the window at the lawn boy. Saint Tashigi just hid her face in her habit, which manifested itself as a blush on Tashigi’s face and her bottom lip between her teeth.

Oh, he was hot. Tashigi imagined it was the Succubus talking instead of her own voice as she gazed down at the shirtless, deeply tanned, and extremely well-muscled young man that mowed the lawn in a black baseball hat. Are those scars? Our girl loves scars.

Tashigi turned red. It’s not that she loved scars, it’s just that they always came with interesting stories. The Succubus needed to be leashed and Tashigi was going to have to go through the annoying process of finding someone to do it sometime soon. It was distracting when Succubus Tashigi had the power to override Saint Tashigi.

Although, this lawn boy’s scars were very alluring, Tashigi noted. There was a large one that cut straight across his chest from hip to shoulder and Tashigi couldn’t help—

“Wait a second.” Tashigi muttered and squinted at the man. “I’ve seen that scar before.” She followed the young man from the study to the living room as he pushed the lawn mower out of her vantage point. She puzzled at the window; rim of the coffee cup pressed to her lips.

The young man paused, as if sensing Tashigi’s intense gaze, and whipped his cap off his head to wipe his brow and look around.

Green hair.

Shit.

That scar had been familiar because Tashigi had seen it through the open zipper of Zoro’s dark green hoodie. Succubus Tashigi crowed on her shoulder while Saint Tashigi squawked in rage. Swordswoman Tashigi leaned forward, eager for a fight.

This is what Tashigi imagined all the facets of her personality were doing as she dropped to the floor like a coward. A million reasons as to why her nemesis Roronoa Zoro mowed the lawn shirtless ran through her head, but there was only one way to know for sure.

Tashigi crawled one handed through her own damn apartment to reach her phone in her bedroom.

“Shakuyaku-san,” Tashigi said with a forced smile, even though she was on the phone, when the older woman answered, “could you perhaps tell me why Roronoa Zoro is mowing the lawn?”

***********************

Tashigi had lots of regrets.

Most tended to be related to her job as a detective.

Yet the biggest one right now was accidentally moving onto the Strawhats’ street.

To be fair, she’d been there first.

When she first moved to Grandline City, Tashigi had lived in the police dorms. She’d still been an officer then and the salary she’d made as an officer in Loguetown and the Grandline Highway patrol hadn’t been enough to afford one of the nice apartments in the Marineford District or parts of the Sabaody District. So, she put up with a way too aggressive roommate and subpar utilities, until she made detective and was transferred to the G-5 precinct.

At that point she’d finally conceded that she needed an adult apartment.

Hina tried to help, showing Tashigi apartments near where she and Smoker lived. They were still too expensive for Tashigi’s salary and she hadn’t exactly wanted to witness her stern superior’s version of domestic bliss. Hina and Smoker could stick to being her work parents only.

Jango and Fullbody had tried next and showed apartments in their neighborhood. Yet owing to Jango’s former criminal proclivities and Fullbody’s mild penchant for assholery, their neighborhood had been bit too rough for Tashigi’s tastes. She had appreciated her weird uncles attempts to soothe her anxieties about living in a New World district of the city, but she’d rather not have them walk her to work every day.

She hadn’t even asked Garp or Tsuru to help. They lived in the Marineford district, which—besides the high price—was too much of a commute to the G-5 precinct. Plus, she was quite sure they basically lived in a retirement home, but she couldn’t be certain. Better not ask.

It had been Koby and Helmeppo who found the apartment. Well, they found Shakuyaku-san, who owned the house the apartment was in…and most the other houses on the street. The other half were owned by ‘Ray-san’, Tashigi really should’ve figured things out at that point, but she hadn’t.

And now, Roronoa Zoro mowed the lawn, shirtless.

Oh, how Tashigi regretted everything.

She wondered if she could find a posting in some outpost town to cover her shame. She’d just explain to Smoker that due to her own absentmindedness and the brutal work hours of the G-5, she hadn’t realized she’d been living on the same street as them for two years until most of the houses on the street had been sold to gangs of the worst generation.

How was Tashigi supposed to know that Shakuyaku-san was the Shakky from Garp’s stories? Or the owner of the famous gang hotspot, Shakky’s Rip-Off Bar? Or wife of the infamous Silvers Rayleigh?

After she’d gotten off the phone with a very amused Shakky, she had called Koby, Helmeppo, Jango, Fullbody, Tsuru, and Garp. It had turned into a horrifying conference call filled with laughter at her expense and stern lectures on her own obliviousness.

Everyone besides Koby and Helmeppo agreed that she really should’ve picked up on it.

Koby apologized profusely and said that he didn’t think Luffy would give him the number of a gangster realtor. Helmeppo and Tashigi both told him in exasperated tones that he really should’ve considered it if _Luffy_ of all people had been involved.

She grimaced now as she watched as her green haired rival, finished with his dogged pursuit of lawn care, accepted a water bottle from one of her downstairs neighbors. Tashigi realized in the back of her mind that she shouldn’t be glaring from her kitchen window, it was unbecoming and he probably noticed. But she was too furious to care.

How could she have been so blind?

The house itself was the smallest in the neighborhood and located at the end of the street, right next the entrance to a private beach. Tashigi wasn’t gonna lie that the quiet beach shared between five other streets had been a big part of renting the apartment. At the time she’d started renting, most of the people on her street had been older, no trace of gangsters. Then again, gangsters had to retire somewhere. If she learned anything from this entire screwup, it was that most gangsters didn’t live in their territories. Rather they lived in the grey areas for unaffiliated civilians, to prevent the continued expenses of having to rebuild homes.

Shakky had sounded too joyful when she explained that previously unknown aspect of gang culture to the bespectacled policewoman.

Tashigi wondered if the Strawhats knew she lived there.

When she moved in, she requested Shakky not give out her information to anybody, living this close to the New World districts as a detective was not the best. She’d only met the other residents in the house once each. They hadn’t been affiliated with any gang she knew of, so she hadn’t really bothered to do a deep check.

They’d seemed nice enough!

Well, after some quick searches through the police database, Tashigi discovered the other ladies in the house were more than they seemed. Those two girls who paid more for the apartment connected to the garage were street racers. The other two girls in the apartment bellow hers worked night hours because they were mercenaries for hire. Even the sweet looking girl in the apartment next-door worked in a restaurant know for weapons smuggling.

Tashigi was kind of glad that she hadn’t been home much.

“Damnit.” Tashigi grumbled as she watched as Zoro ambled across the street to the Strawhat house. “Why did I renew my lease for a year? Curse Shakky-san for being so convincing.” She rubbed between her eyebrows with the palm of her hand. This was truly an embarrassment for the books.

Years ago, when she worked in Loguetown, she could count on one hand the truly disastrous embarrassments (that could be divided neatly into the folders Absentmindedness, Clumsiness, and Stubbornness). The time she tripped over her own feet while chasing a perp and lost him, or when she misfiled some casework while she wasn’t wearing her glasses, or when she accidentally wacked her superior in the back of the head with Shigure’s sheath, or when she spilt tea all over her and Smoker’s dress uniforms right before a ceremony honoring them for their outstanding work in Loguetown.

But those embarrassments had been solved so easily. Smoker had caught the perp after she tripped, while lecturing her on ‘paying attention to the damn road’. She found the misfiled casework herself and refiled in properly after she realized it had been misplaced while double-checking the case, being a Goody Two Shoes had its perks now and then. The superior she smacked had been _Garp_ and he’d been sleeping standing up, what a way to meet a police hero. Smoker hadn’t minded one bit that his dress uniform was covered in tea, something that had surprised Tashigi, and said that ‘the whole ceremony was a damn farce anyways and got in the way of real police work’. Their medals had been given to them offhandedly by Hina later in the day while she chewed Smoker out for skipping and being ‘a bad influence on Tashigi-san’.

Tashigi buried her face in her hands and groaned. Accidentally being neighbors with the Strawhats and other gangs wasn’t going to be solved by getting yelled at by Smoker or a gentle lecture over tea by Tsuru and Hina. No, this was big trouble. Given the nauseated spinning of her once rigid moral compass and sense of justice. Given her growing affection for a certain happy-go-lucky group of gangsters. Given the crippling attraction to a green haired swordsman.

Damnit.


	3. May I

“Do you have dinner with them?”

Tashigi sighed through her nose. For the past three weeks Smoker had passive aggressively asked Tashigi questions about her sudden proximity to the Strawhats. This being after the epic, loud, and public lecture about ‘paying attention’ and ‘her damn blind spot with the Strawhats’. Hina and Tsuru’s gentle talk down afterwards had been almost as guilt tripping.

Tashigi had sent herself into self-imposed exile.

She did all of Smoker’s paperwork. Worked every extra daytime stake out shift he wanted. She always did her best to be hyper focused as to minimize her moments of clumsiness and distraction.

She’d done everything she could to diminish his anger.

But she couldn’t face the Strawhats.

Every time they had encountered each other Tashigi had taken whomever they’d been against. She hadn’t been able to look them in the eye without envisioning their house and its proximity to her apartment. An absolute coward.

“No, sir, I do not eat with them.” Tashigi tried to keep the long suffering out of her voice. “At this point, I barely sleep at my apartment.”

“Are you looking for a new apartment?”

“I have one more year left on my lease, sir. I have to wait.”

“Can’t you get someone to take it over?”

“Who, sir? I don’t know anybody that’s not a cop or already lives on the damn street.” Tashigi snapped, unable to keep her cool. “Why is it so bad that I live on the same street anyway?”

“You think Sakazuki is going to understand that it was truly an accident?”

Tashigi stiffened. She hadn’t thought of that. The G-5 precinct was a distance from Marineford precinct and Sakazuki’s brand of absolute justice even further away. She’d forgotten that merely calling Shakky to view the apartment was a fireable offense in Sakazuki’s eyes. The twisted relationship that had developed over the years was jailable to him.

“Shit.” She hissed and felt dizzy. She’d forgotten how to breathe.

“Head between knees.” Smoker ordered. He’d had to walk her through this before. “Deep in. Deep out. Deep in. Deep out.”

Tashigi was soothed by Smoker’s rough voice. She disliked the fact that he had to talk her through this in the squad car during their shift. She tried to direct her mind to anything but absolute justice, Sakazuki, and the Strawhats.

It took several minutes for her to breathe normally.

“You good, kid?” Kid? He hadn’t called her that since she was in the Academy.

“I’m fine, Smoker-san.” Tashigi said, exhaustion lining her face. “Can we go arrest so people?”

“My favorite way to cope.”

Tashigi chuckled quietly as Smoker started the squad car.

It was a quiet night. They only really stopped to call people cabs or prevent fights from even starting. Tashigi was almost disappointed, these were the type of nights she wanted before she’d been an inch from spiraling.

Smoker practically grinned when the typical Straw-hat call came through.

“You aren’t going to stick me with them this time?” Smoker asked as they drove toward the indicated bar.

“No, sir,” she laughed slightly, “I won’t be a coward.”

“Good.” He smiled faintly.

They pulled up to the bar, lights on, sound off. The Strawhats never tried to run and Smoker’s voice usually halted things on the Strawhat end.

“I’m not even surprised it’s those three.” Smoker huffed as they entered the bar. The Monster Trio were squaring off against several beefy looking guys by the bar. The young men didn’t even look serious. Luffy grinned and asked for meat from the bartender. Zoro had a mug of beer in hand and wasn’t even facing the three. Sanji was the one who looked heated and the brunette behind him indicated what the fight was about.

Tashigi locked eyes with Zoro and she quickly looked elsewhere.

Something purple caught her eye as Smoker opened his mouth.

“Oi, Strawhat, I just want one night without this shit.”

Tashigi ignored the Strawhats completely now, much to Succubus Tashigi’s chagrin.

“Hey, Smokey!” Luffy cried, “It’s my birthday and we’re having a party. Wanna come?”

“Strawhat, I swear—” Tashigi didn’t let Smoker finish his exasperated sentence and slapped him hard and repeatedly on the back of his shoulder.

“Smoker-san,” she hissed and pressed close to his back, “don’t look now, just a casual glance to the back-left corner. Isn’t that our trafficking perp Baines?” Smoker’s eyes flicked towards the dark corner.

“It is.” He rumbled; lips barely moved.

“And doesn’t that girl next to him look…drugged?”

“She does.”

The purple haired perp moved and tucked the spaced-out girl under his arm.

“He’s on the move.” Tashigi hissed. “You get rid of the Strawhats and I’ll follow him out the back and you bring the car around. Done?”

“Done.”

Tashigi skirted the bar crowd as the perp and girl pushed into the back hallway.

“Rain check on the party and the arrest, Strawhat. Happy Birthday.” Smoker said and turned out the bar doors as Tashigi pushed into the back hallway.

She shoved into the back alley as she watched the purple haired perp load the now unconscious woman into the back seat of the car.

“Smoker-san,” Tashigi hissed into her walkie, “he’s getting into a black 56 Hoya parked in the back alley. License plate: FSV 1766.” The car started and drove towards the street. “They’re driving toward 46th street. Meet me there.”

She pressed close to the walls of the back alley and swiftly followed in the shadows. The dark vehicle trundled onto 46th street with a wide turn.

Smoker pulled up moments later. The lights were off and Tashigi was now grateful for the darker color scheme Sakazuki had instated when he became Commissioner. Her superior didn’t even stop as she opened the car door and slid in.

“Call Hina.” He growled; laser focused on the car in front. Smoker was the master of tailing people and high speed chases.

Tashigi did as he ordered.

“Ngh?” Hina’s sleepy voice grunted.

“Hina-san.” Tashigi whispered urgently.

“Tashigi-san?” Hina’s voice cleared immediately. “Is something wrong?”

“Baines is on the move.” She answered. “We encountered him in the act of abducting a girl and now we are following him.

“Give me the license plate number and car make.” Hina ordered. “Then call Koby and Helmeppo, they will track your location and we will follow.”

“Black 56 Hoya. FSV 1766. Done.”

“Good.” Hina hung up.

Tashigi dialed the boys as Smoker followed the car into the south warehouse district. They immediately told her they’d be at her position in ten minutes.

Jango texted her that he and Fullbody were bringing assault gear.

Tsuru texted a moment later that they had no back up.

“Sir,” Tashigi hissed, “We won’t be getting back up.”

“Not surprising, Hina had a theory that Baines has an inside man.”

“Yes, but we are heading into what is probably the center of his operation.”

“You saying you can’t cut it?”

“I’m saying I’d rather not get shot for the seventh time.”

They watched the dark car enter a gated warehouse.

Smoker circled the warehouse and then parked the squad car in an alley across from it.

Tashigi watched the warehouse as Smoker pulled their bulletproof vests from the trunk.

“He probably noticed us following him.” Smoker muttered as he saw two figures come to the warehouse gate.

“Then he’s probably going to call his inside man.” Tashigi murmured as she struggled with her vest.

“I’m calling Hina and telling her to come to this warehouse.” Smoker said and adjusted his bulletproof vest straps, “Tell her to come in from the back.”

“Don’t phrase it like that. She’ll probably have Jango and Fullbody with her.”

“Good point.”

Tashigi watched as a squad car pulled up to the warehouse gates and was let in. Her fingers clenched. She couldn’t tell who it was, but the idea that someone she’d worked with was willing to sell the citizens safety for money carved her soul out. It proved every snarky word Zoro and Law and occasionally Nami and Robin said about the police.

Oh, look, guilt and indecision, her old friends.

“Keep it together.” Her Sargent growled over her shoulder. “Spiraling is how you get shot for the seventh time.”

“I’m not spiraling.” Tashigi snapped, “I’m just thinking about arresting whomever they are and showing them how real police behave.”

“Good girl.”

They heard the engine of a car idle and then stop.

Hina, Fullbody, Jango, Helmeppo, and Koby rounded the corner behind them. They were armed to the teeth and those with long hair had them in ponytails.

“G-5 rides again.” Jango chuckled with a grin.

“Garp and Tsuru are already filling the paperwork for the damage we’re gonna cause tonight.” Fullbody smirked and handed Tashigi a tactical belt. She checked that everything was there: spare gun, extra clips for the guns, and a baton. She added her service weapon, Shigure, and her walkie to the tactical belt.

“Comforting they’re so prepared.” She replied wryly.

The group gathered at the mouth of the alley. As this was Hina’s operation, she gave the orders. Koby, never without an internet connection, had managed to pull up a schematic of the warehouse on a precinct laptop.

“How do you have that?” Tashigi asked incredulously, “I thought we weren’t supposed to take those out of the precinct?”

“Pft.” Koby snorted and rolled his eyes, “And what? Look up schematics on my phone? It can’t support PDFs.” Tashigi made no comment.

“Hina would like to get back to the task at hand.” Came the pink haired Lieutenant’s stern voice.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Hina sees that the schematics indicate there are four floors. The victims would probably be held on the top floor, with minimal guards, but multiple guards on the ground, second, and third floors.”

“We saw the traitor enter the warehouse.” Smoker added. “So they probably know someone is here.”

“They’re probably beginning to clean house.” Tashigi speculated.

“Before their spy can receive the expected assault call.” Fullbody muttered.

“Hina thinks that we can stall that.” Hina said. “Hina hates to do this, but if two people create a distraction, then two other teams can cut the fences from the sides and enter the side doors.”

“Smoker and I will do it.” Tashigi offered immediately.

“Sometimes I think you want to get shot.” Helmeppo gasped.

“No, think about it,” she stressed, “Smoker and I are both on night shift, probably spotted by Baines at the bar, and known to be rather reckless and impulsive. If they think it’s just the two of us, the cleaning house will be stalled until we’re caught.”

“Which means that you’ll have to barrel through the fence like psychopaths and cut off any type of communication they have.” Koby mused. “They gotta think it’s only two people.”

“Like our entire career hasn’t been just that.” Smoker snorted.

“Hina thinks that Smoker and Tashigi-san sound make their goal the fourth floor.” The Lieutenant began. “Helmeppo and Koby should take the second, while Hina, Jango, and Fullbody take the third. Communications between floors should be halted.”

“What about the ground floor?” Jango asked.

“That clearly falls under our jurisdiction.” Smoker huffed.

“Then Hina thinks we have a plan. Jango, Fullbody, get Hina her bolt cutters.”

“If only every woman could say those words to me.”

“I have my own personal axe.”

“Don’t brag, Goody Two Shoes.”

“Let’s stop fucking around an go.”

“Yes, sir, Sargent, sir.”


	4. May II

Tashigi and Smoker crept out of the alley, while the other five doubled back to take a longer trip around to the sides of the targeted warehouse. Smoker carried one of three sets of bolt cutters. What Hina needed three bolt cutters for was anyone’s guess.

“I take out the two at the gate and you cut the lock.” Smoker murmured and handed off the bolt cutters.

“How’re you going to do that?” Tashigi questioned as she held the heavy cutters upright. Were the grips pink? The hell, Hina?

“A little thing called acting.” He said primly. “Oi, you two!” The two brutal looking guards jumped and turned to stare at Smoker, who leaned casually on the fence. “C’mere.”

Tashigi and the hot pink bolt cutters blended with the shadows. She saw one of them mutter into a walkie talkie.

“You guys seen a black 56 Hoya?” The two guards side-eyed each other and then looked critically at Smoker.

“…no.” Tashigi sidled up to the heavy lock on the gate, completely ignored.

“Really?” She was impressed by the clearly fake disbelief in her superior’s voice. He was good. “Cause the guy had a girl with him and she didn’t look all there. You didn’t see anything that might match that?”

Tashigi cut the chain with a soft snap. Before the two men could react, she rolled the gate open and watched their faces as it slid past. Horror as they were face to face with Smoker.

“It’s never smart to lie to me.” The hulking white haired man snarled and whipped the jute off his back. The two guards grabbed their guns, one wielding two pistols while the other hand a rifle.

Smoker’s jute slammed into the pistol carrier’s face.

Tashigi slashed the rifle from the other’s hands and cut him straight across the chest.

They were in.

“Smoker-san,” Tashigi said as she cleaned and sheathed Shigure, “I know you said that the ground floor was our responsibility, but how are we going to take care of that and the fourth floor?”

Smoker pulled two cigars from his back pocket.

“We’re gonna split up.” He placed the cigars in his mouth. “We’ll charge in as a team, but I’ll draw most of the fire and you head for the stairs.” He patted his pockets.

“That’s suicide.” Tashigi huffed and held out the lighter she always kept on her to him.

“I can handle it.”

“Truly the only person who could.”

Smoker handed back the lighter, dual cigars smoldered in the dark of the night. He was serious now.

“And you are the only person who can make it to the fourth floor.”

“Flattery won’t stop me from telling Hina after all this is over.”

“Tch. Let’s just go.”

They jogged to the large bay doors of the warehouse.

Tashigi cut the chain on the handle and Smoker shoved the door upwards.

Criminals converged on them the moment they barged into the warehouse.

“Don’t let them fire.” Smoker shouted as his jute cut an arc across the battlefield and cleared several gun toting thugs out of the way.

Tashigi said nothing. She sliced through the crowd of criminals that converged on her. Where Smoker carried obvious brute force, Tashigi was a knife wedged between ribs. Quick and agile, she dodged from opponent to opponent and inflicted sharp slashes.

She felled enemies and cut walkies off belts.

From the corner of her eye and between charging bodies, she saw her five comrades had slipped through the stairwell door.

“Smoker-san.” She called as she slammed Shigure’s hilt into a nearby face. “I’m going up!” She yanked the walkie off the fallen man’s belt and charged the stairs.

“I got your back.”

Tashigi slammed through the stairwell door.

“Argh!” a man charged after her.

“Fuck.” She coughed as he slammed her into the railing.

Shigure was wedged awkwardly between her and the man.

“Get off.” She snarled and kicked the man hard between the legs.

He wheezed like a dying balloon as he sunk to the ground.

Tashigi punched him in the face. Then she hauled him up against the stairwell door and used his own belt to secure him to the handle. His shoelaces were tied to the stairwell railing for good measure.

The bespectacled policewoman took the stairs two at a time as she raced to the fourth floor.

As she skidded around the landing for the second floor as call crackled over the criminal’s walkie.

“There are intruders on the second floor.” The static filled voice yelled.

Tashigi cleared her throat and pinched her neck to deepen her voice before she replied: “It must be that damn Smoker’s right hand woman. She broke off from the fight to rush the stairs.”

“Get her under control.” Another voice crackled. “She’s only one woman.”

Tashigi chafed at the statement. She’d hunt that voice down and show them what one woman could do when this was all over. A bang sounded from beyond the second floor door, Tashigi pushed down every big sisterly instinct and continued up the stairs.

The door to the third floor was completely off its hinges. Jango and Fullbody wailed on any enemy in sight, while Hina appeared be performing on the spot interrogations.

“Oi!” Tashigi called, “Trouble on the second floor, someone might want to check on Koby and Helmeppo.”

“Hina will go.” Hina said sternly. “Keep going up. Jango, Fullbody, clean up here.”

“Yes, beloved Hina.”

With a final burst of speed, Tashigi sprinted to the fourth floor. She calmed her rapid breathing as she pressed low and close to the door. Slowly, she eased open the grey metal door to peer into the fourth floor.

While the other floors had minimal yellow lighting, the fourth floor was dark and shadowed. Pale blue glow flooded from a couple of skylights. In that glow, Tashigi saw cages.

She crept onto the fourth floor.

One long aisle stretched in front of her. On either side were chain link fence cages.

Each cage held several young women.

Tashigi’s eyes watered at the smell of human refuse and blood.

“Miss?” She whispered and crouched next to the nearest cage. The young woman inside was wan and covered in sores. “Miss?”

“Who,” the woman’s voice was rough and raw, “Who are you?”

“Detective Tashigi of the GCPD. Could you tell me where the keys are? So I can get you out.”

“You can try.” The girl’s eyes were blank and lifeless. “He keeps the keys at the end of the line,” she pointed down to the end of the aisle, were it curved and continued on, “with the new girls.”

Deep swallow and Tashigi pushed to her feet.

Shigure drawn and high on alert.

As she turned the corner of cages, she encountered two beefy men. Sharp intakes of breath came from the cages around them.

“You—” Tashigi didn’t let them finish speaking, let alone draw their weapons.

One slash. Two slash. Back of blade to the back of two heads.

Tashigi ignored the murmured confusion growing around her. The keys and escape more of a priority.

The aisle snaked through the fourth floor. Tashigi discovered it was to hold the maximum amount of cages possible, and there was a sickening amount. They had assumed it was a small operation, given the number of girls reported missing, but the amount of girls in these cages indicted something larger and more far reaching.

Which means that Baines might not be the head. Tashigi thought as she rounded the last corner.

At the end of this aisle was a cage set to the side, with a lone girl slumped inside. The girl from the bar. On the wall next to the cage, Tashigi could make out a ring of keys.

She rushed forward.

Her hand closed around the keys when she sensed a presence.

“Shit.” She hissed. She’d gotten ahead of herself. Half turned, a hard force slammed into her ribs. As Tashigi crashed into the chain link cage, the same forced caught her behind the knee and brought her to the ground.

Whatever hit her whistled through the air as the wielder made to hit her again. Tashigi sensed the intent was her head. She rolled out of the way.

As quickly as possible, Tashigi pushed herself into a sitting position, back pressed against the wall next to the cage. She gasped and ignored the screaming pain in her knee as she hauled herself to her feet. It was her bad knee too, which her attacker knew.

“Johnson.” She snarled. The auburn haired police officer smiled ferally and twirled his baton. The purple haired Baines stood smirking behind him.

“Shoi.” He replied, “I thought it’d be you and Smoker when Baines called me about a cop car following him. Kinda stupid to do it alone.”

“Can’t trust everyone,” The black-haired policewoman gritted, “Not with losers like you on the force.” Johnson’s smile fell.

“Stop being so idealistic, Shoi.” He growled, “You can’t make money as a police officer and nobody advances out of the G-5. Vergo knew that.”

“Ugh.” Tashigi snorted in disgust. “Don’t tell me you did this garbage because of him.”

“He was an influencing factor, but I like to think I did it better than him.” Tashigi rolled her eyes. “He went too big, too public, the real money and longevity are in smaller, quiet operations like this.”

“Vergo was already a member of the Donquixote gang before he ever joined the force.” Tashigi hissed. “He was a psychopath, who only did things to please Doflamingo, money meant nothing to him. So your reason is somehow grosser.”

“You bitch.” Johnson snarled.

“Wrap this up so we can go kill Smoker.” Baines rasped and walked down the aisle. “I’ll wait by the door.” He disappeared around the corner.

“I could shoot you.” Johnson mused. “But beating you to death would be way more satisfying.” He raised his baton to eye level.

“I could say the same.” Tashigi huffed and removed her hand from Shigure’s hilt. “Tell me, how’d you do it?” She raised her hands in a fighting stance.

“Do what?”

“Keep Baines kidnapping girls a secret. He was pretty obvious in that bar tonight.”

Johnson grimaced.

“The man knows nothing about subtlety, only quotas.” He surged forward to strike and Tashigi dodged. “I had him work only in my beat and sometimes, if I’d gotten too many calls about him in a week, I’d just drop off some of the drunk party girls at the warehouse instead of the drunk tank.” Tashigi dodged his wild strike again.

“You bastard.” Tashigi scowled.

She surged forward and caught the baton in her hands.

A sharp twist and she flung it away from them.

Johnson gnashed his teeth and threw a wild right hook. Tashigi made to turn, but her knee shrieked and she halted at the pain.

Stars exploded behind her eyes as Johnson’s fist glanced off her cheek.

Tashigi stumbled and landed on her backside.

“Gotta love that bum knee of yours, Shoi.”

“You are the only one.” Tashigi ducked his fist but didn’t stop his leg as it caught her already bruised ribs. She gasped in pain and lurched sideways. Tashigi scrabbled desperately and tried to get to her feet.

Johnson kicked her knee and she buckled under the weight of her own body.

He kicked her ribs again and Tashigi heard a crack. Sharp, hot needles shot from her ribs to her brain. Her knee was a dull throb and her cheek warm with pain.

Tashigi didn’t understand how she managed to take a beating every fight, but she was very tired of it. Half curled on herself, Tashigi watched through half closed eyes as Johnson’s booted foot sailed towards her face. Like hell she’d let this continue.

Tashigi grunted as she caught his foot and held on with a vice grip. She made furious eye contact with him.

“My turn.” She snarled and kicked her good leg out.

She caught Johnson’s hip and he came crashing down to the ground.

It wasn’t dignified or swordswoman-like, but Tashigi was mostly rage and betrayal at that point, she clambered on top of the auburn haired policeman and punched him in the face.

It was an absolute slugfest.

Tashigi crushed his nose with one of her punches. She felt the bone give.

Johnson aimed for her ribs and knee, knowing they were already weak.

One of his wild punches knocked her glasses of her face and Tashigi was off him like a shot to retrieve them.

Tashigi shoved them quickly on her face and used the chain link cage to haul herself to her feet.

The girls in the cages looked on in trepidation. Hope had been a long unreachable thing.

Johnson huffed and wheezed across from her. His knees knocked worse than Tashigi’s and his wasn’t even injury related.

The policewoman in question was done throwing fists.

“Fucking bitch.” Johnson coughed and reached for his gun.

Tashigi closed her eyes, drew a deep breath in through her nose, and gripped Shigure’s hilt. She was done dropping herself to someone else’s level, especially this pathetic traitor.

“It’s Detective Fucking Bitch to you, Officer Johnson.” She opened her eyes, gaze hard and sharp like a blade. “You best remember that.”

“Shut—urk!” Blood exploded from Johnson’s lips. His eyes widened. Tashigi wasn’t standing in front of him anymore. He hadn’t seen her move.

A long and deep cut marked his torso. Blood gushed from the wound and he found that Tashigi’s cut had been particularly damaging to his gun dominant shoulder. He glanced behind him, Tashigi stood with Shigure sheathed and an imperious gaze.

“Officer Johnson, I’m placing you under arrest for treason.”

“What…the…hell…just…happened?” Johnson muttered as his body gave out and he keeled over in a dead faint.

Tashigi’s eyebrows crawled into her hair.

“Might’ve overdone it.” She muttered as a dark puddle seeped slowly from Johnson’s fallen form.

“He deserved it.” A soft voice whispered on her left. Empty blue eyes and limp blond hair gazed at her from beyond a chain link cage. “He brought me here.”

“Then let me rectify that.” Tashigi limped to where Johnson first knocked her down. The keys had fallen to the floor beneath their hook.

She started with the cage of the girl she and Smoker had followed from the bar. She was still unconscious. Tashigi pulled her out carefully and rested her gently against the cage.

She opened the next two cages on the end of the aisle.

“If you can find the strength,” she said to the girls that hesitantly crept from the cages, “please open the rest of the cages and help those that can’t walk get to the entrance of the fourth floor.”

“What will you do?” A dark haired young woman asked. She and another girl were lifting the unconscious woman from the bar to her feet.

“Baines said he’d wait by the door, it’d be a shame if no one met him there.” Tashigi couldn’t help the savage grin that curled her lips and she took off.

Her knee howled in protest as she skidded around the serpentine turns of the fourth floor. The girls in the cages were on their feet now, whispered communication passed between them. Tashigi hurdled around the final turn and found a confused and furious Baines at the door.

“You!?” He shouted, “What the hell did you do?” The purple haired man grabbed for the holster at his hip.

“My job.” Tashigi bellowed and drew Shigure.

She dropped under Baines outstretched arm, before he could even fire a shot.

In a gentle and graceful arc, belying the rage that boiled under her skin, Tashigi sliced Baines from his wrist to his shoulder. Then dragged Shigure’s tip across his chest as she propelled past him. She decided to finalize things and plunged Shigure straight through his hip and out his inner thigh.

Baines collapsed to his knees and screamed gutturally. He wasn’t conscious when the rest of his body hit the floor.

Tashigi panted and clutched her knee. She’d really overdone it this time. Her ribs weren’t happy either.

The young women from the other cages rounded the corner. They started at the much larger puddle of blood around their former captor. This black-haired policewoman was reckless and prone to violence.

“It’s not a serious injury.” Tashigi assured them as she noticed their gaze.

“Could you make it one?” The girl Tashigi encountered when she first entered the fourth floor. “He really is a bastard.”

“I feel like that would break protocol, instead of just pushing it.”

“Tashigi!” Jango shouted as he and Fullbody panted at the top of the stairs. “We heard screaming.”

“Not me.” She pointed almost childishly at the bleeding Baines.

“Damn girl.” Fullbody breathed. “You weren’t supposed to kill him.”

“I didn’t.” She whined. “Just handcuff him and get these girls blankets.” The last of the girls were released from cages. “Now, if you excuse me, I have to go arrest Johnson.”

“Oh, ok, have fun. WAIT, JOHNSON!?” Jango’s mouth gaped.

“The traitor was Johnson?” Fullbody asked, dumbstruck.

“Yup.” Tashigi limped back toward Johnson’s unconscious body.

“I knew it. No good person clips their toenails in public.”

“Fullbody, swear to gods, let it go.”

“Not a chance in hell.”

Tashigi smiled as she hobbled around the corner. The girls were in good hands.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that Shoi is Japanese for Ensign and Tashigi doesn't have a last name in the manga. For the sake of this story I am making it her last name because I do believe I read it in another fic and I thought it was the best last name I'd seen someone give to her. I wish I could remember the fic now.


	5. May III

God, she was in so much pain.

Tashigi groaned and tried to ignore the soreness coursing through her body.

It absolutely didn’t work.

For her and Smoker’s commendable service, with zero pomp, Sakazuki had reluctantly, via formal letter, reinstated them to day shift. Effective once they’d both healed up. For all Smoker’s reassurances he’d taken a beating, equal to if not worse to Tashigi’s, down on the ground floor.

He’d be out of commission for three weeks.

By extension, so was Tashigi, much to her chagrin. Doctor Kaya had been almost ecstatic when she delivered the news. Tashigi knew she should be guilty about the trouble she and Smoker gave the blonde doctor, but not working for longer than a week was physically impossible for both of them.

Hina had taken the diagnosis well. She’d turned immediately to Garp and requested those same three weeks off. Tashigi, from the other hospital bed, watched Smoker’s face go bright red. Koby and Helmeppo had turned a similar color, but it was from horror. Jango and Fullbody were just purple with rage.

In the end, everyone involved in the bust that night got three weeks off.

Helmeppo cited psychological damage in the hospital room for Garp and Tsuru to make the decision.

After returning from the hospital, Tashigi had basically been on her back for three days.

Every time she stood, her knee complained.

Every time she bent over, her ribs protested.

Every time she wore her glasses, her bruised cheek whimpered.

So, until her cheek healed, she fumbled around her apartment and laid in bed.

Except she was out of food.

Tashigi regretted not spending more time in her apartment.

She stared down at the list she’d made, then up at the grocery store in front of her. It had only been a block from her apartment. She’d never been here before, preferring to get groceries from the store near the precinct and carrying them home on the bus.

Tashigi decided that this would not be scary. She had her list, her coupons, and her reusable bags. It absolutely didn’t matter that she couldn’t say hi to her favorite cashier, Ethel, or that she looked like she’d been worked over with a baseball bat.

Absolutely didn’t matter.

Nope.

Tashigi winced as she took a step through the sliding door.

She was not dressed for this.

The red plaid shorts she wore were technically men’s boxers and she was not wearing a bra under her loose plum tank top. To make the lack of bra less noticeable, Tashigi had put a black short sleeve button up shirt over top, but hadn’t buttoned it. Constricting clothes were bad for her recovery.

She felt the bandage wrapped, knee brace covered knee really set the vibe. As did her scrunchied messy bun and crooked glasses. Balancing the red frames to not touch the circular bruise on her cheek bone was a skill. So was limping in her black athletic slides.

Shigure’s weight on her right hip was the only thing that gave her confidence.

Tashigi grabbed a shopping cart and leaned heavily against it as she began her much needed shopping.

As she dragged her cart around the store, Tashigi wondered just how she’d spend three weeks. Once her knee and ribs stopped overtly hurting, she’d obviously start working out again. But where? Her usual gym, like her usual grocery store, was over by the precinct. Maybe she could work out in her yard. She highly doubted that a gym would let her have a three week free trial. Also, there weren’t many gyms that accommodated sword wielders.

Hina had suggested she hang out with friends she hadn’t seen in a while. The heavy significance of the look that accompanied the suggestion was not lost on Tashigi. Hina wanted her to contact Isuka. While Tashigi had maintained contact with her best friend when Isuka transferred back to Loguetown, they hadn’t truly seen each other in three years.

Tashigi should go see her.

She should also go home, something she hadn’t done in over three years.

Could she even consider Loguetown her home anymore? Upkeep of her parents’ graves had fallen to Isuka and most of her former colleagues—minus Smoker—had distanced themselves from her after her transfer to the G-5. What kept bringing her back there?

Oh, right, the house she grew up in. The place that held her childhood memories. The last physical reminder that her parents had loved and lived in the world. If she had forgotten that, then she really needed to return to Loguetown. 

She sighed and turned down the preservative aisle. Maybe splurging on strawberry jam would cheer her up. A strange sight stopped Tashigi in her uneven tracks.

A very short young man stretched on his tip toes trying to reach marmalade on the top shelf.

A very short young man that Tashigi recognized.

Unease swirled in her gut as she watched Tony Tony Chopper jump slightly to try and get the marmalade. If he was here, then the others couldn’t be far behind. Even if it wasn’t all of them, Zoro was most certainly nearby. Tashigi had noticed that Zoro had a soft spot for the diminutive doctor.

They were the last people Tashigi wanted to see. They cared way too much for criminals.

Tashigi decided to consult her shoulder entities.

Saint Tashigi and Succubus Tashigi appeared on her shoulders; Swordswoman Tashigi popped out of her bun.

Succubus Tashigi considered the problem. Avoid, was her decision. The little doctor would ask what happened, the level of painkillers and his watery concerned eyes would loosen Tashigi’s lips. Then he’d tell the others, specifically Zoro, and Tashigi would be clucked over and teased. Confidence and resolve would crumple, cue sobbing in public.

Saint Tashigi decided that helping would be best. It would take half a second, she could keep her left side out of his view, and then walk away. Shopping was basically done, if she made a beeline for the checkout she’d never have to encounter whatever Strawhats he came with.

Tashigi was mildly concerned that the two shoulder entities were giving her opposite advice than normal. It was probably the painkillers.

Justice over self, Saint Tashigi reminded her.

Damnit.

Tashigi dragged her cart over to the shorter man. Mindful to keep her left side out of his view she reached up and grabbed the jar of marmalade. She offered in to him unenthusiastically and waited for him to take it so she could run.

“Oh goodness, thank you!” Chopper said sweetly. He turned to look up gratefully at the kind stranger who helped him, before he realized who it was.

Tashigi winced as his face turned fearful.

“Miss. Policewoman!”

“…Tashigi.”

“Miss. Policewoman Tashigi!”

“Close enough.”

“Are you,” Chopper looked furtively around the area, “here with Smoker?”

“No.” Tashigi’s brow furrowed. Did it really look like she was on the job? Oh gods, did she look this bad every day? She missed his next question as she drowned in her own self-conscious thoughts.

“Miss. Policewoman Tashigi?”

“Huh?”

“I asked if you were here to fight Zoro.”

“Oh, no, I’m not.” Tashigi answered. “Just doing grocery shopping, like a regular person. Anyways, I better go. Uh, have a good day, Doctor Chopper.”

If the short man said anything else Tashigi didn’t hear it, she just limped away like the hounds of hell where on her heels. Who needed strawberry jam anyway?

Tashigi regretted speed limping away from the Strawhat doctor as she shagged in the checkout line. Her knee hadn’t been ready to move that fast, even with the ridiculous amount of painkillers she’d taken.

She handed off her reusable bags to the bagger. Her coupons went to the cashier.

“What the fuck, Usopp? I thought I said no store brand?”

“Nami told me to keep the budget in mind, this was 75 cents cheaper.”

“Nami-swan! How could you?”

“Sanji-kun, it’s not my fault Usopp fears me more than he fears you.”

Tashigi groaned. The voices came from several checkouts behind her and she dare not check to see how far along they were. She mentally begged the cashier to speed things up.

She white knuckled it through bagging and payment, trying not to do anything to drag attention to herself. Then, finally, with five bags balanced in each hand, Tashigi hobbled toward the exit.

A mild May breeze brushed her face as she started down the sidewalk. One block was nothing really, she’d just have to take many breaks so the bag handles didn’t cut through her hands. Tashigi could totally make it before the Strawhats came out of the store.

There were sudden, rapid footfalls behind her and Tashigi’s groceries were detangled and lifted out of her left hand.

Startled, Tashigi turned and reached for Shigure. She was totally ready to slice down whomever stole her groceries, when a sharp pain shot up her leg and through her ribs. Frozen, she could only stare, embarrassed and in agony, as Roronoa Zoro stepped into her line of sight with five of her bags of groceries in his hand.

“Roronoa.” She croaked, muscles loosened from their defensive stance, and she straightened excruciatingly slowly. “Those are my groceries.”

Zoro hadn’t listened to her, instead he focused on her face. Something Tashigi couldn’t read flashed through his good eye. His brows scrunched and a frown deepened on his face.

“You’ve been punched.” Zoro stated, “More than once.” He reached out and grabbed her other five bags.

“The other guy looks worse.” Tashigi defended and made a wild grab for her things. Zoro, with zero effort, held them out of her reach. Not that Tashigi’s reach was all that good with her battered ribs. “Please give those back.”

“Hmm, no.”

“Why not?”

“Don’t wanna.”

“That’s not a reason.” Tashigi stressed and she saw Sanji, Usopp, Nami, and Chopper of the Strawhats exiting the grocery store. Did they take that shopping cart or bring it with them? The Strawhat insignia indicated brought with. “C’mon, give my groceries back.”

“Can you even carry these groceries?” Zoro asked and dodged Tashigi as she lunged for her groceries.

“Of course I can.” Tashigi spluttered. “That’s what I was doing before you took them.”

“Lemme say it differently,” he chuckled, “Can you carry these groceries well?”

Tashigi’s face reddened and she pouted. The honest answer was no and he knew it.

“Tashigi-san?” Nami’s voice caused Tashigi to turn away from Zoro.

“Hello, Strawhats.” Tashigi sighed. “How are you?”

“Tashigi-chan!” Sanji gushed. “I’m well. It’s so nice that you—”

“It was a general question, swirly brow.” Zoro snarled.

“Fuck off, moss head. Tashigi-chan was asking—”

“Anyway,” Nami interrupted the two, “What are you doing here, Tashigi-san?” Tashigi always appreciated Nami’s critical eye, it reminded her that there were sane members of the Strawhat gang. Usopp, another relatively sane member, eyed her suspiciously over Sanji’s shoulder.

“Nami,” Chopper whined, “I already told you she was grocery shopping.” He bounced from foot to foot slightly behind Nami and his medically trained eyes lingered on Tashigi’s knee brace. “She’s not here to arrest us.”

Tashigi nodded in agreement.

“Let me refine my question,” Nami sighed, “Why are you grocery shopping here?” All their eyes appraised her curiously as they waited for her answer.

“I live near here.” All eyes went wide and the Strawhats glanced between themselves.

“Sure.” Usopp drawled, absolutely unconvinced. “You ‘live’ around here.”

“I do.” Tashigi gritted.

“Why don’t we walk you home?” Nami said, with false sweetness, if Tashigi was lying they’d catch her red handed. “Zoro already has your groceries.” Tashigi struggled momentarily.

If they walked her home then they’d know she lived across from them. Then she’d have to explain everything and deal with teasing, because she was too oblivious to realize who her neighbors were.

The dull pain in her knee spiked for no reason.

She really couldn’t carry ten bags of groceries.

“You can walk me home.” Tashigi said resignedly, “But I get to carry two of my bags.”

Zoro shrugged and forked over two bags.

Tashigi cheered in silent victory. He’d given her the lightest ones by coincidence. Minimal limping ahead.

“Well,” Tashigi said awkwardly, “it’s this way.” She trudged forward with the handful of Strawhats trailing behind.

By the time they turned down their shared street Tashigi’s teeth were set against the pain in her knee. On her walk over she’d taken several breaks, but with the Strawhats she hadn’t dared rest and display her weakness. Not that it worked, as she noticeably dragged her left leg.

The once suspicious gazes at her back had slowly morphed into surprise and pity. Every once and a while Sanji would say: Tashigi-chan. Only to be stopped before he’d say anything else. Tashigi didn’t bother to look to see who stopped him, but she was grateful. This ordeal was mildly less terrible if no one pointed it out.

“This is our street.” Usopp mumbled.

“Yep.” Tashigi gritted and sped up.

Chopper made a strangled noise, something Tashigi had heard before from Doctor Kaya. She considered it the doctor sound for: Don’t-you-fuckin’-move-like-that-you-are-so-not-healed.

Knee trembling from the strain, Tashigi stopped in front of the house containing her apartment. She took a moment to suck in deep breaths before she turned around to face the Strawhats.

“This is me.” Tashigi forced a smile onto her face as she pointed to her upstairs apartment. “I’ll just take my groceries.” She reached for the groceries in Zoro’s hands.

He held them out of the way. Tashigi snarled, this evening was not going the way she wanted. He wasn’t even looking at her, he was looking at Nami, who was in deep conference with Sanji, Usopp, and Chopper.

“Tashigi-san,” Nami had pulled away from the little cluster, “you are coming over for dinner.” It was a demand, not a request.

“Excuse me?” Tashigi was flabbergasted.

“Zoro, help her put her groceries away, then bring her over.”

“Don’t order me around, witch.”

“Just do it.”

Nami stalked across the street to the Strawhat house, with the three other boys following behind with their grocery cart. Zoro stayed, looking grumpy.

“What just happened?” Tashigi gaped.

“You learn to deal with it.” Zoro rumbled as he hip checked the front gate open. “Aren’t you going to invite me up?” The shit eat grin he wore snapped Tashigi out of her shock.

“Like hell you are going anywhere near my apartment, Roronoa.”

Zoro was two steps behind her as she did her best to stalk up the stairs.

“You are not coming inside.”

“It was demanded that I help you put your groceries away.” Tashigi felt he didn’t need to be so smug.

“I can put my own groceries away.” Tashigi fished her keys from her shirt pocket. “You don’t need to come inside.”

She jerked open the door.

Zoro’s eye scanned the inside of her apartment as Tashigi detangled the bags from his hands. She ignored the warmth that rushed through her as their fingers brushed together. Succubus Tashigi was purring at the proximity to Fantasy Fodder Numero Uno.

Once she’d gathered all the grocery bags into the apartment, Tashigi pulled her door closed with a huff.

“If you’re not out in ten minutes, I break the door down.” Called Zoro’s muffled yet amused voice.

“Don’t you dare.” She screeched and set about putting her groceries away.

***************

Zoro chilled on the steps to Tashigi’s apartment when said woman stepped outside. She stared at the back of his green head for a few moments. It was almost romantic. Like he was waiting for her to get ready for a date.

Tashigi looked down at her completely unchanged outfit. Okay, so not a date but something. He was waiting for her for something.

Her chest hollowed suddenly. She wanted to be waited for. She wanted to have someone to see after work and not a friend. She wanted the tender familiarity that she saw between Hina and Smoker. She wanted romantic love.

And she didn’t want it from just anyone, she wanted it from this directionally challenged green haired swordsman.

And she couldn’t have it.

Tashigi’s jaw clenched in fear at the terrifying realization that her attraction to Zoro was way deeper than anything sexual. Which meant that her soft spot for the rest of the Strawhats was deeper than she’d previously thought. She couldn’t have dinner with them, it would ruin her completely.

If she moved fast enough she could probably make it over the banister, it’d only hurt like a ton. Then high tail it up the next street to hail a cab and live the rest of the year in the precinct break room.

“Thinking of running, Glasses? Or admiring the view?” Zoro smirked over his shoulder, his three gold earrings swayed from the slight turn.

“I was doing neither of those things.” Tashigi pouted as her face flushed.

“Eh,” his eye narrowed slightly, without malice, “you were thinking about running.”

“Pfft,” Tashigi rolled her eyes as they started down the stairs, “tell me, Roronoa, do think a fall from this height would kill me?”

“Nah, probably break your leg though.” He mused. “Then Chopper would kill me, as I am technically in charge of you, so don’t.”

“I don’t remember it being anywhere in Nami’s orders that you were in charge of me.”

“They weren’t orders, since no one orders me around, but it was basically implied.”

“Really? No one orders you around?”

“Yeah.”

“Uh huh, and what does Luffy do?”

“Makes requests based on our friendship.”

“How is what Nami does any different?” Tashigi asked with a laugh.

“It’s the tone she uses really.” Zoro chuckled as he pushed open the gate to Thousand Sunny House.

“You’re ridiculous.” Tashigi sighed. The shadow of Thousand Sunny House filled her with trepidation. The moment she hobbled across the threshold there would be no going back. It wasn’t even a big deal, but in Commissioner Sakazuki’s eyes Tashigi might as well be driving a getaway car in a robbery.

“You gonna come in?” Zoro held the front door open.

“Huh? Oh, yes.” Tashigi hobbled through the doorway.

“Don’t think so hard, Glasses.” He looked almost concerned for her, but Tashigi was sure she was just projecting.

“Why does everybody say that?” She huffed.

“Because you write your feelings all over your face.”

Damnit.

Zoro lead her through the house. It was big and open and warm. So typical Strawhat that Tashigi wanted to laugh at her previous fear. She’d treated this place like a damn enemy fortress and there was a cat clock on the wall.

Sanji’s blonde head bobbed along to light music in the kitchen. Was that a lacy blue apron?

She was hustled past the slightly dancing cooking man and deposited out the backdoor. There was a lovely flagstone patio, wide grassy lawn and Strawhats scattered in chairs around a long wooden table.

There was a slow in conversation at her appearance.

Tashigi considered running for the umpteenth time.

“Ah, Detective.” Nico Robin said, perpetual soft and enigmatic smile stretched across her face. “Nami said you’d be joining us.”

The orange haired woman smiled and waved her hand to an empty chair next to her.

Tashigi nodded nervously and took the seat next to Nami. A twinge ran through her bad knee at Robin’s pale face.

“Hey, Tashi!” Luffy smiled. He and Usopp were playing handheld video games. “Where’s Smokey?”

Tashigi pinched the bridge of her nose. Where she and her superior really so codependent that everybody assumed they were never far from each other?

“I’m not sure, Luffy-san.” She replied. “I assume he’s at home though, considering he could barely move the last time I saw him.” Tashigi muttered the last part more to herself. She’d taken another painkiller before she left the apartment and it kicked in.

“Oh, is Smoke-bro okay.” Franky asked as he looked up from the project he tinkered with next to Robin.

“Eh, just minor hospitalization.”

“I knew it!” Chopper appeared next to her, first aid kit clutched in his hands. “I knew something was wrong with you!” He tried to grab Tashigi’s knee brace.

“Whoa, hey!” Tashigi squawked and tried to avoid the Doctor’s hands. “I’m fine.”

Warm, strong hands clutched her shoulders from behind.

Tashigi stilled from shock alone.

“That limp didn’t look fine.” Zoro rumbled from above her as he stood behind her and pressed her back into the chair so the doctor could do his work.

Don’t blush. Don’t blush. Don’t blush. Tashigi chanted in her head.

“That’s just because this is like the third time it happened.” Tashigi stuttered and watched the brown haired Doctor prop her leg up on another chair and unwrapped her knee brace. Then the bandages were pulled away. The Strawhats winced and hissed at the swollen, bruised lump that was her left knee.

“That’s a fresh injury.” Stated Jinbe. The large man cradled a tea cup next to the rail thin musician, Brook, who hummed in agreement. Those two, especially Brook, were older than dirt and had seen their fair share of injuries.

“Cool.” Luffy said, with stars in his eyes. “It looks so gross. When’d you get it?”

“Uh, like three days ago.”

The Strawhats stilled and Zoro released Tashigi. She’d stopped trying to prevent Chopper from rewrapping her knee.

“The 5th?” Nami questioned.

“That was Luffy’s birthday.” Sanji said as he brought out a tray of lemonade. A bag of ice was dropped at Chopper’s side. Tashigi moaned in relief as the doctor pressed the ice to her knee.

“I remember that.” Tashigi said as she adjusted more comfortably with her leg propped on another chair. “You told us in the bar that evening. Happy belated birthday, Luffy-san.”

A rare frown was on the Strawhat wearing young man’s face.

“You and Smokey were fine when we saw you.”

“Ah, that’s because the fight happened after that. Technically the entire incident started in the bar though.”

“Is that why you and Smoker bolted?” Zoro asked.

“Yeah, we saw our suspect kidnapping a girl in the bar.”

“Kidnapping?” Usopp squawked, his eyes wide. “You got in a fight with a kidnapper?”

“Well, technically,” Tashigi corrected, sipping her lemonade, “We got in a fight with a sex trafficker and his henchmen.”

“Is that how you hurt your knee?” Chopper asked, concern in his big brown eyes.

“No, I hurt my knee fighting the dirty cop on the sex trafficker’s payroll. That’s how he knew it was my bad knee.”

The Strawhat collectively winced. Tashigi had read the unredacted files and the articles in the Revolutionary Rag, she knew they suffered more than once under dirty cops.

“Are you okay?” Nami asked softly. Tashigi was surprised at the gentle concern in her eyes. “It must’ve reminded you of Vergo.” The bespectacled woman’s eye brows climbed into her hair. The wince had been for her.

“Oh, um, I’m fine.” Even if she wasn’t Tashigi wasn’t going to spill to the Strawhats. Dinner was one thing, therapy session was another.

“Hmm.” Nico Robin didn’t look convinced, but she was a smart enough woman not to press the issue. “You said it was the third time your knee has been injured. You should tell our dear doctor, just in case.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve already told my doctor all about it. I just need to keep off it.”

“I don’t know if I should trust the word of a police doctor.” Chopper’s eyes narrowed suspiciously.

“Doctor Kaya is not a police doctor, those don’t exist, and she’s very good at her job.”

“You know Kaya?” Usopp’s eye brows were in his thick, curly hair.

“Yep, she’s patched Smoker and I ever since we transferred to the G-5.”

“So you’re the insufferable female detective.” She heard Usopp mutter.

“Tell me anyway.” Chopper pleaded. “Your limping concerned me.”

“Alright,” Tashigi shrugged as Sanji brought out carefully balanced trays of food, “The first time, I got hit by a car in Loguetown. It was my first year as an officer and perp hit me head on. It wasn’t more serious because I rolled up the car before they got my other knee. The doctor described my knee cap as shattered and I was on desk duty for a year.”

“Doesn’t sound too bad?” Zoro said and Tashigi nodded in agreement.

“Are you kidding me?” Chopper growled. “That’s terrible.”

“Tashi looks fine to me.”

“It was seven years ago, Luffy-san.” Tashigi explained.

“When was the next time?” Brook asked, intrigued.

“Second time was Alabasta.” Tashigi thought the Strawhats were unflappable, but their eye brows were raising a lot. “It got dislocated when I fought someone.” Tashigi focused intently on her food. Lovely seared meat and grilled veggies. Sanji had outdone himself.

“How do you dislocate your knee in a sword fight, Detective-sis?” Franky asked. He’d based his assumption of the nature of the fight based on the sword at her hip and her clashes with Zoro.

“Ah, it was hand-to-hand combat.” Tashigi said lightly. “They got my sword out of my hand, so I had to improvise.”

“Who would dare dislocate a lovely lady’s knee?” Sanji snarled from his seat.

“Um.” Tashigi glanced quickly to Robin, then back to Sanji’s furious gaze. “Just a member of Baroque Works. No one you know.”

There was a contemplative silence and Tashigi figured they’d moved on, until:

“Oh.” Robin’s face had a slight, embarrassed flush. Something Tashigi was shocked to see on the alleged former assassin’s face. “I do believe it was me. I’m sorry, Detective.”

“It’s totally fine.” Tashigi said hurriedly, “It was a mess of a day anyway. You don’t need to apologize. Please don’t be upset.” She hoped the Strawhats weren’t mad that she’d told them their archeologist had dislocated her knee. Just in case, she shifted to leave.

Sudden laughter erupted around her and stilled her escape.

“Shishishi,” Luffy’s grin was wide and placating, “sometimes I forget you were a bad guy, Robin.”

“Probably a super sexy bad guy.” Franky cackled and swung a large arm around the embarrassed archeologist.

“You aren’t upset?” Tashigi asked quietly.

“Why would we be upset?” Nami laughed.

Tashigi mulled over why she thought they’d be upset. Jango got very sullen when his past indiscretions got brought up. Fullbody yelled and threw things if anybody mentions the underhanded shit he used to get away with. Helmeppo gave anyone who mentioned his dirty ex-Lieutenant father the cold shoulder and would grimly explain that he wasn’t his father. She knew that their reactions stemmed from guilt, that they desired to be more than the mistakes they’d made.

Sakazuki was said to have fired the last person who mentioned the entire Marineford debacle.

Police really needed to be better at admitting mistakes.

“I have no idea.” The detective muttered sheepishly.

“I’m surprised you’re not upset, Detective.” Robin said, composure regained.

“Ah, well, they say time heals all wounds,” Tashigi chuckled, “and it has been almost five years. Besides,” her tone had taken on a more contemplative note, “my knee wasn’t my main concern at that point in time.”

“It better be your main concern now.” Chopper said in his doctor tone.

“It is, Doctor Chopper.” Tashigi giggled. “Doctor Kaya gleefully put Smoker and I on three weeks bed rest.”

“You better rest for all three weeks!”

“I’m sure I’ll be fine by next week.”

“Oh my god, you’re just as bad as Zoro.”

“How could you compare me to him?”

“Oi, don’t use me as a bad example.”

The Strawhats laughed at the expressions of indignation on the sword wielders’ faces.

Tashigi found their laughter infectious and her ire melted away. Even the vein that pulsed in Zoro’s forehead throbbed less as their laughter washed over him. Maybe having dinner with the Strawhats wasn’t so bad.

*****************

Tashigi rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly.

Zoro was going to walk her home.

Then again his friends had shoved him out the door after her. The smiles on Robin and Nami’s faces were indecipherable to Tashigi, but the glints in their eyes were surprisingly wicked.

“I can get home by myself.” Tashigi said uncomfortably and interrupted Zoro’s grumbling about demon women and witches. “I’d rather not be responsible for you getting lost crossing the street.”

“Oi! I don’t get lost, the houses just move around on me.”

“Sure.”

“What about you Miss. Absentminded?” He scoffed, “Two years, really?”

“Several things, Roronoa, I was here first and I work a lot.”

“Two years means you work too much.”

“There is no such thing.”

“Sure.”

Tashigi didn’t mind the silence that had fallen between them. It reminded her of the comfortable silences between her and her weird work family. The Strawhats weren’t friends with silence like she was, but their warm and constant chatter was its own kind of comfort.

The pair stopped in front of Tashigi’s apartment.

Unable to come up with anything to say Tashigi jerked her chin as a goodbye and turned to limp up her stairs.

“Uh.” Zoro stuttered and Tashigi glanced over her shoulder. The green haired man scrubbed a hand through his hair and didn’t make eye contact. “Listen, I know that you promised Chopper that you’d stay off your knee for two weeks—”

“And that I’d let him ice it every day.” Tashigi reminded. She’d gotten suckered into dinner every night until her knee was less ugly looking under the guise of a personal doctor’s check-up from Chopper. Like she didn’t know to ice her own bum knee. But the sweet doctor had looked so concerned for her health that she couldn’t say no.

“Yeah, that.” Zoro chuckled and the unease in his shoulders loosened. “When you do feel better, do ya wanna spar?”

Tashigi was shocked by the offer. She was always the one to challenge him, which he always accepted reluctantly.

“I lose every time.” She blurted.

“All practice is good practice.” He smirked.

“What I mean, Roronoa,” Tashigi clarified, “is why? You’ve never wanted to fight me before. I honestly don’t even think I’m a challenge for you.”

“Yeah, but you’ve gotten better and you always try very hard.”

“Don’t patronize me, Roronoa.”

“Fine. Listen.” Deep nose sigh. “It sucks being unable to train.”

“I’ve heard that never stopped you.”

“Yeah, well, Chopper is frightening when my ‘bad’ habits rub off on others.”

“I had these habits long before I met you, Roronoa.” Tashigi chewed the inside of her cheek. “Why are you so concerned that I train anyway?”

“Who says I’m concerned for you? Maybe I want a training partner who appreciates the craft.” Zoro deflected and folded his arms across his chest. “And maybe Hawk Eyes promised me a pay raise if I find him an early morning teacher for the dojo.”

“Dracule Mihawk owns a dojo?” Tashigi gaped. “And you work there?”

“He’s only had it for a year, apparently training me was ‘eye opening’.”

“That’s kinda cute.”

“Shut up.” Zoro’s ears turned red. Tashigi chalked it up to the sunset. “And I’m only working there until he gets more teachers.”

“Considering I already have a job, I don’t think I’m a great replacement.” She laughed.

“Just try it. If anything it free access to a professional dojo.”

Tashigi pursed her lips and considered the one eyed swordsman. He wanted her to go to the dojo, that much she could figure out. His reasons were what confused her. He wanted a sparring partner. Mihawk wanted a teacher for his dojo. Both explanations felt true but false at the same time. There was something in his eye that she couldn’t figure out.

“Give me till after the weekend to decide.” She whispered after a moment. “Training with a gangster is a serious breach of protocol.”

If Zoro was disappointed by the reminder that they were enemies, he didn’t show it.

Tashigi was sure he didn’t care either way.

“See ya tomorrow either way.” And he returned across the street. Succubus Tashigi whined and scolded her for not inviting him up.

Right, why would she care about training at a gangster dojo when she was having fucking dinner with them and getting free of charge physical therapy sessions from them. Gods, her life was a dumpster fire. She really should talk to someone about this rollercoaster she’d been unwillingly strapped to.

And she knew the perfect person.

Tashigi twisted open her door and pulled out her phone.

She locked her door and dialed Isuka’s number.

Her red headed friend answered as Tashigi flopped onto her couch.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t my favorite girl.”

She smirked at Isuka’s voice. When they’d been in the academy Isuka had been the soft spoken sweetheart to Tashigi’s reckless brand of awkwardness. That didn’t mean Isuka wasn’t any less awkward or truly as soft spoken as everyone assumed.

“Last I checked I was your only girl.” She giggled. “Unless you’ve been making friends without me?”

“Please,” Isuka scoffed, “you know how hard it is to break in new friends. Anyway, what do I owe this lovely phone call?”

“Can’t a girl just call her oldest friend for a chat?”

“The last time you called me was to tell me Smoker got you dumped to night shift.” An undercurrent of concern peaked in Isuka’s voice. Tashigi was tired of being unable to read people, the Strawhats were like books written in a completely different language and printed upside down, but Isuka was always a picture book to Tashigi. It was the same for the red haired fencer.

“Fair, fair. The last time you called me you’d been concussed.”

“Stop toying with me.” Isuka was playful but she was worried. “What happened?”

“I busted a sex trafficker.”

“And?”

“I’m on bed rest for three weeks.”

“Shit, did you get shot again?”

“I did not get shot.” Tashigi laughed at the long suffering tone in Isuka’s voice. “Just took a beating to my knee, my ribs, and my face.”

“Oh, so the Holy Trinity.”

“Yep, my usual suspects.”

“Do I get to hear the dirty details or am I just gonna have to guess?”

“Well, I could tell you over the phone and that’d be entertaining and all, but I think this is a story better told in person.”

“So you’re going to come for a visit.” Isuka squealed happily. “Oh my gosh, I have been so bored these days. When are you thinking?”

“It’s Tuesday right?”

“Yes, Jeeze, how hard did you get hit?”

“I’ve taken worse hits honestly, from you especially.” Tashigi joked. “I was thinking this weekend. Probably get a ticket on the first bus out Saturday morning.”

“I can get Monday and Tuesday off next week off.” Isuka supplied and Tashigi could hear as the woman flipped through her planner.

“You got that kinda pull in the LTPD?”

“I am Captain Ripper’s best detective.”

“I always liked that guy, I’m glad he made captain instead of Nezumi.”

“Nezumi is dirty as hell.”

“So dirty.” Tashigi agreed. “Gods, it’s gonna be good to be home.”

“And here I thought you loved Grandline City?”

“You know as well as I do that life has gotten complicated in the last few years.”

“Sounds like I’m going to hear about more than just how you fractured your ribs.”

“Yes, but wouldn’t you be so disappointed if I didn’t tell you.”

“I would think our friendship was dead or you were in serious trouble.” Isuka’s tone was deeply serious but there was a current of humor.

“Gosh, you care so much for me. I love you, Booger.” Tashigi cooed.

“So mature.” Isuka snickered. “I love you too, Weenie.”

“See you Saturday.”

“See you!” Tashigi smiled at her old friend’s eager tone and hung up.

Three weeks bed rest wouldn’t be so bad if she kept busy.


	6. May IV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These next two chapters could be considered: History of Tashigi that I made up. The reason I included Isuka, even though she's only a character in One Piece novel A, is because she's described as and idealistic, clumsy swordswoman and I figured she and Tashigi would probably be the best of friends. Tashigi needs more Marine friends anyway.

4am was not an unfamiliar time to Tashigi. Some of the best surveillance of her career happened at 4am. She and Isuka used to have the finest drunken talks at 4am. Great work outs happened at 4am.

But 4am hurt a hell of a lot more when she’d woken up to catch a bus.

Tashigi groaned as she hauled her hot pink travel duffle over her shoulder. It was too early to be moving. She pulled up the hood of her navy zip up and adjusted her knee brace.

Time to go.

Tashigi grabbed an apple from her fridge, checked the two blanket covered lumps on her couch and loveseat, and left.

With her door locked securely, she shuffled down her front steps. Her slides only caught twice on the old boards and that was her usual clumsiness, not her knee.

Chopper’s insistence that he check her knee everyday was actually a good thing. The little doctor heated and iced her knee in turn, as well as massaging it. Her knee had never felt better, even when it wasn’t injured.

She had dinner with the Strawhats every night. Sometimes Koby and Helmeppo joined, way less nervous than Tashigi had been the first time, when they camped at her place. It was always fun.

The boys were the lumps on the couch and loveseat as Tashigi left her apartment. They’d been given permission to stay while she was in Loguetown. Permission that could be revoked permanently if she came back to any whiff that the Strawhats had been in her apartment.

They’d all been eager to even get a peak in the bespectacled policewoman’s place the moment they discovered she lived across from them. When one of them came to drag her across the street for dinner there was always copious amounts of neck craning.

And leading comments that might get them through the door.

Nami had asked examine one of her ‘vintage kitchen chairs’.

Robin saw the bookcases in the study once.

Sanji wanted to see if she was eating well.

Chopper needed to check her first aid kit.

Usopp asked to use her bathroom.

Franky, Brook, and Jinbe didn’t even try. They laughed from the bottom of her steps as she shot every Strawhat down. This didn’t mean they couldn’t be roped into a scheme by one of the others. Robin had gotten Franky into full carpenter gear to ‘check the structural integrity of her bookshelves’. That one nearly worked.

Zoro and Luffy were the hardest to turn down.

Luffy because he asked outright and had the biggest puppy dog eyes at his disposal.

Zoro because he knew how to play to her weaknesses. It took so much of her self-control to shoot down his: ‘What are those swords on your wall? They look important. Named.’ The sour pout that twisted her face must’ve amused him enough because he’d smirked, hadn’t pushed further, and hauled her out of her apartment.

She glanced across the street as she ambled through the blue-gray morning. Their house was quiet. Even their earliest risers didn’t get up for two more hours. Tashigi shivered slightly. May might be a warmer month but it was still too chilly in the morning for the athletic shorts she wore. It be warmer on the charter bus.

First she had to get to the station.

She passed the Heart and Kid gang houses. While she might be friendly with the Strawhats, but she wasn’t with the rest of the worst generation. In fact, she still kind of hated Trafalgar Law, even if he was one of the Strawhats closest allies. He might be a better person now, his illegal organ trade closed down since his alliance, but he was still an asshole.

Most of the Worst Generation gangs had ‘improved’ by their association with the Strawhats. Everybody seemed to become a better person by associating with the Strawhats, whether the gang wanted to be heroes or not. But there were still some instances of criminality that even Tashigi wasn’t comfortable overlooking.

She plopped on the bus stop bench.

The stop was a left turn out of her street and up at the corner of the residential area. She stared at the eclectic collection of darkened shops across the street. It was mostly restaurants, boutiques, and empty storefronts. There was a hardware store and a pharmacy too.

Tashigi stopped mindlessly wondering about the stores she never visited as the city bus rolled up. She scanned her bus card and nodded at the bleary eyed driver. The four other occupants of the bus were either asleep or looked half dead. Tashigi sympathized, she knew the signs of night shift.

The bus rumbled through the sleepy city and Tashigi hugged her duffle to her chest. The Grandline Charter bus station that fed the Paradise Provinces and the Four Blues was at the other end of the city, with all the stops the city bus had to go through it’d take almost an hour. There was another Charter bus station at the other end of the city, that fed the New World Provinces, but it was seldom used.

Anybody going to the New World Provinces used their own vehicle, chiefly because getting to that Grandline Charter bus station was a nightmare.

After a certain point in Grandline City the police had no power. The New World districts were unregulated, any attempt to establish a precinct in particular districts was met with no small amount of violence. Gangs kept the peace in their own territories, but what kind of peace that was depended on the gang.

There was a reason Tashigi had been so overworked the last two years. The G-5’s zone of responsibility was triple what it should be.

The bus crossed Marineford bridge and onto Marineford Island.

There were three Islands in the middle of Grandline City: Marineford, Mary Geoise, and Fish-Man Island. They were naturally formed in the currents of the Redline River that divided Paradise and New World Provinces. Marineford and Fish-Man were the only ones were crossing was allowed.

Although, one didn’t cross Marineford if there was a warrant out for their arrest.

Tashigi straightened as the white marble Justice building slid past. The highest court in the nation and the sight of one of the most ruthless acts of police brutality ever witnessed. For many citizens, it was no longer a beacon of righteousness, but rather a symbol of a great miscarriage of power. As was One Police Plaza right next to it.

The bespectacled woman winced and sank below the windows of the bus, she didn’t want to see her reflection in the large glass windows.

The Marineford Riots were at the forefront of her mind, given who she was going to see.

Tashigi gripped the straps of her bag. She shouldn’t have thought of it there. It felt like Sakazuki’s hard black eyes were drilling into the back of her neck. To her knowledge no one knew what she and Isuka had done that week. Not even Smoker.

And no one was ever going to.

She released a ragged breath as the bus crossed the next Marineford bridge. She should take the bus that crossed Fish-Man Island on the way back, her heart couldn’t handle the stress. Plus, if what Zoro had said was true, her guilt was splashed across her face.

Tashigi forced her mind to avoid the hard topics in her life for the rest of the city bus ride.

***********************************************

“Ugh, twelve hours on a bus is horrible for my back.” Tashigi complained as she stretched and heard the familiar noise of her vertebrae popping. She unzipped her navy hoodie as 5pm in Loguetown was decently warm.

“Would you have rather driven yourself?” Isuka laughed and pushed her aviators up into her auburn hair. The Loguetown detective pushed herself off her black motorcycle.

They stared at each other in the Loguetown Charter bus parking lot. Each woman analyzed the other to pick up signs of stress or unhappiness.

Isuka looked much the same as she had three years ago. Her short vermilion hair brushed her shoulders and a Band-Aid still rested on her left cheek under one sparkling brown eyes. She wore a plain green t-shirt and cargo shorts. A burn scar covered the back of the hand that rested on the hilt of her rapier.

She appeared well. The last time they’d seen each other there had been bags under her eyes and her cheeks had been hollow from skipping meals. Loguetown agreed with her.

Tashigi looked beaten down. Her hair was longer, well past her shoulders, and bound in a braid. Her grey shorts and blue hoodie were faded and frayed. There were faint bags under her eyes and, of course, a fading bruise. Her shoulders sagged under unseen weight.

The last time they’d seen each other Tashigi’s hair had brushed her chin and her shoulders had been held square and tall. The picture of discipline and control. The crack in the justice system hadn’t stooped her shoulders yet.

“You look terrible.” Isuka said, concern lacing her voice.

“If it makes you feel better, I look worse than I feel.” Tashigi sighed as she walked to her friend. Isuka helped her strap the hot pink duffle to the back of the bike.

“Oh, so you look like you’ve been hit by a bus, but you feel like you’ve only been hit by a car?” Isuka asked sarcastically. Tashigi smiled and grabbed the second helmet on the bike.

“Yes, actually, that’s a pretty accurate statement.” Tashigi’s voice was muffled by the helmet sliding over her mouth.

“Gods, girl, how did you become such a mess?” Isuka asked as she slid on her own helmet.

“Buy me a drink and I’ll tell you.” Both women mounted the bike.

“Like I didn’t buy several cases of beer for this weekend.”

“By the Meito, I’ve missed you.” Tashigi hummed and gripped her best friend’s waist as the motorcycle roared to life.

Isuka released a loud bubbling laugh. Then kicked the bike off down the street.

**********************************************

“Seriously?” Isuka gapped.

The two women reclined on Isuka’s balcony. Feet propped on the metal railing and cold beer in hands. Isuka’s fourth floor apartment had a lovely, if distanced, view of the Loguetown clocktower at the center of town. And the old execution platform.

“Seriously.” Tashigi groaned with a smile and rubbed her eyes under her glasses. She’d filled Isuka in on how exactly she’d hurt her knee, ribs and face.

“That’s the second dirty cop you’ve encountered in the G-5.”

“Vergo last year, Johnson this year, swear to gods if someone is dirty next year I’m retiring.” Tashigi complained. “It didn’t seem like there were this many terrible officers when I started out.”

“Tell me about it” Isuka said and took a sip of her beer. “I can only ever remember Nezumi and he was on the East Blue Highway Patrol.”

“When we got out of the academy, I thought that the hardest year I’d ever have was that first year.” Tashigi huffed and took a sip. “The shit menial tasks no one wanted, learning the rules, and all that damn running.”

“Plus getting hit by that car.” Isuka reminded her with a wide grin.

“I’m sorry, didn’t you fall off a building your first year?” Tashigi questioned smarmily.

“It was a fire escape and I landed on a closed dumpster.” Isuka corrected.

“Hmm, is that better?”

“Absolutely not.”

They laughed before settling into comfortable silence.

“What _was_ your hardest year?” Isuka asked after a few moments. “You were saying you thought it’d be the first year.”

“It’s hard to pin point.” The black haired woman groaned. “I thought it was the third year when I met the Strawhats and then Alabasta happened at the end of that year.” She recalled quietly, “Then I changed my mind when the fifth year rolled around. Nothing could be worse than Marineford.” Isuka flinched. “But Vergo at the beginning of last year and then night shift at the beginning of this year, I think it’s all just gone downhill since Marineford.”

“What could be worse than Marineford?” Isuka asked darkly and finished her beer.

“Nothing.” Tashigi agreed. “That was a moment of unspeakable injustice and violence that should never be repeated. Yet, every moment since then I’ve seen the everyday actions that get us to such places. The officers who push the limits of their powers, the rich punks that smooth their way past criminal convictions with an abundance of Beri, and people who turn to crime for a little bit of freedom.” She closed her eyes. “I can’t keep on top of it Isuka and I can’t just let it roll past me. It’s just burying me.” Tashigi’s voice crumbled at the end. She could barely say it out loud.

“You could always run away.” Isuka said in a watery voice. “It worked for me.”

“Did it really?”

“No.” Isuka sighed. “No matter how much I like Loguetown and how much I accomplish, it’s nothing like Grandline City.”

“So why did you leave?”

“You know why?” Isuka said shortly.

“No I don’t, Isuka.” Tashigi said with a tremor of anger in her voice. “We both played apart that day. We both decided to tell the truth.”

“It was different for me.” Isuka cried. “It was…it was Ace. What we did hurt Ace.”

“Sakazuki pulled the trigger.” Tashigi whispered. “We can’t control the decisions of other people.” It was a lesson she’d had to come to terms with in Alabasta.

“We gave all the evidence that the police set Ace up to the Revolutionary Rag. The public outcry got the case dismissed.”

Tashigi pressed her lips together. They’d never spoken of what transpired that day. When it first happened they had been preoccupied with the Marineford Riots for the months afterward. Then Isuka had suddenly transferred back to Loguetown. Tashigi had never mentioned it again after that, she decided it would be better for Isuka to bring it up herself.

The citizen’s arrest or Portgas D. Ace by Marshal D. Teach, for a Shichibukai seat, had made front page news. Tashigi and Smoker freshly transferred to Sabaody 69 precinct and Tashigi had just passed the detective’s exam when they were called to Marineford to provide protection for the Justice building.

Whitebeard would make his move. Sengoku and Akainu would force him to. A Whitebeard sent lawyer had been turned away at the gates of Impel Down and the worst public defender was set up for Ace. Charges of arson had been laid against him, all of which had been falsified. Ace’s only true crime was being the son of Gol D. Roger.

Tashigi watched Isuka slowly fall apart over the course of his trial. She was denied visiting him in prison and denied the ability to testify to his innocence in the fires she knew were Draw’s fault. Isuka was ordered not to do anything to interfere in the case Akainu was building.

After one too many times comforting a sobbing Isuka, Tashigi decided that she should figure out if Ace was really guilty. Just to stop her friend from spiraling completely.

He wasn’t.

Perhaps that had been the most horrifying moment of the entire debacle. Tashigi in the dark records room in the basement of One Police Plaza, staring at the real files and the fakes. She’d almost believed the fake files, until she realized several dates were off. It had taken the whole night of hunting through the deepest reaches of the file rooms to find the truth.

They’d made it all up. They’d made it up because he was the son of Gol D. Roger. They’d made it all up because of what he might become, not because of who he was.

Tashigi had never met Portgas D. Ace. A brief graze in Alabasta perhaps, but he had been Isuka’s adversary mainly. But she’d met Strawhat Luffy, his younger brother, who, despite having a reckless disregard for rules, was a man who did things for his own happiness and the happiness of his friends.

That was how she made her decision. By thinking about Portgas D. Ace as an extension of the Strawhats. She copied the files and gave them, real and fake, to Isuka and asked her what she wanted to do.

Isuka had paced back in forth in a back hallway of the Justice building, while a finger nail chewing Tashigi peaked around the corner for anyone coming to look for them. They couldn’t give this to Internal Affairs, Akainu and his team would sniff it out and silence it. Tashigi suggested Aokiji, but Isuka had pointed out that the man was loyal to Sengoku, who had put his full support behind Akainu’s case.

In the end, they gave the files to the Revolutionary Rag.

Using the police investigation of the Revolutionary Army, Tashigi found a number for the Revolutionary Rag offices. Isuka spent three hours at a payphone before finally getting through to someone who would listen. She told them they had evidence of a set up.

In the same back hallway of the Justice building, which had become Tashigi and Isuka’s hiding place, the two police women had hastily shoved the copied files into the hands of reporters Koala and Sabo. Isuka had done all the talking, in hushed and hurried tones, while Tashigi had rigidly watched around the corner.

The story had run three days later.

There had been a crowd outside the Justice building. Angry civilians furious that the police could abuse their power, even if it was Gol D. Roger’s son or a man with gang affiliations, it was one thin step away from framing anybody for ‘the greater good’. Then the Whitebeard gang and all their associates had shown up, with Whitebeard himself at the head. They cited the law itself and demanded an internal investigation given the Revolutionary Rag article.

Then Strawhat Luffy showed up with a ton of escaped prisoners from Impel Down. He demanded his big brother be released. Jinbe stood behind him and also fluttered the article about as reasonable doubt to the validity of Akainu’s case.

Tashigi and Isuka had been on barricade duty. They weren’t privy to the massive argument that was running its course between District Attorney Kong, Police Commissioner Sengoku, Chief of Police Garp, and Captains Akainu and Aokiji.

The argument ended with Aokiji announcing he’d head up the investigation personally and that Ace was to be released into Garp’s custody until the matter was resolved. Garp had taken Ace’s handcuffs off himself on the steps of the Justice building. Akainu had been yelling that Ace would run, that letting him go now would create an even worse threat down the line.

Tashigi had hoped that would be the end, but it wasn’t. Marshall D. ‘Blackbeard’ Teach arrived with the worst escaped prisoners from Impel Down. He’d come for Whitebeard’s head and Ace’s by extension.

And Ace was first, exposed on the Justice building steps.

It was chaos.

Whitebeard gangsters broke the police barricade to protect Ace, to attack Blackbeard. Garp got knocked out of the way by Luffy who was trying to get to his brother. Police were trying to subdue and recapture prisoners while also trying to quell Whitebeard and Blackbeard gangsters.

Tashigi remembered the visual. The two brothers facing each other each with a relieved grins and Akainu up the steps, grim look on his face, with a rifle aimed at Ace’s back. The four full jacketed hollow point bullets had ripped through Ace’s back, exploded out his chest, and buried themselves in Strawhat Luffy.

Isuka scream was drowned out by Luffy’s, which haunted Tashigi’s nightmares for a year. Tashigi abandoned all attempts to hold down the barricade and instead restrained a distressed Isuka.

It was a mess after that. The initial gunfire sparked more. Police formation broke down and violence escalated. When things should have stopped, they kept going. When the unresponsive Luffy and Ace were squirreled away. When Whitebeard died standing up.

Akainu was unforgiving.

Koby had a panic attack on the steps of the Justice building. Helmeppo shouted for Garp and got Akainu instead. Tashigi occupied with a devastated Isuka and irate Smoker couldn’t hear what Koby said to the towering man between shuddering breaths.

Yet she heard the click of a gun.

Akainu had a gun to Koby’s temple.

Smoker and Tashigi both yelled and fought through the roiling crowds, Isuka dragged numbly behind them.

Red-Haired Shanks intervened before they could.

Relief flowed through Tashigi as she dragged Koby from under Akainu’s arm. Now she had two, scratch that Helmeppo made three, distressed officers in her care. Smoker positioned himself between them, a silent wall of defiance between Akainu and his subordinates that hustled into the Justice building.

Thus ended the Summit Incident on the steps of the Justice building. The confrontation that started the three month long Marineford Riots. Whether they liked it or not, Tashigi and Isuka’s actions had played a part in the violence.

They’d made penance in their own ways. Isuka removed herself from the city entirely. Tashigi had swallowed the transfer to the career hole that was the G-5 without a word.

“What is that man to you, that you would take the blame this way?” Tashigi asked in a low voice as she stopped running those decisions from three years ago through her mind.

“You wouldn’t understand.” Came Isuka’s choked voice.

“Try me.” Tashigi sighed and finished her beer. She opened another one.

“I—I fell in—oh gods.” Isuka buried her face in her hands. “I’m in love with him.”

In love. As in still existing feelings. Isuka hadn’t seen Portgas D. Ace in three years and she could still say that. No wonder she spiraled.

“That’s not a crime.” Tashigi said half-heartedly, not believing her own placating words. “At least, it shouldn’t be.”

Isuka only laughed raggedly. A fragile smile crooked across her face.

“Did you ever tell him?” Tashigi asked curiously. Mind straying to green hair and gold earrings. What Isuka did with her feelings could help Tashigi with her own mess.

“Absolutely not.” Isuka said sharply and her brown eyes hardened with conviction. “I would never have told him. It wouldn’t have—I couldn’t—They are my feelings and I can handle them. They are not his problem.”

Tashigi released a very bitter laugh. Isuka’s reasoning was relatable, but so different from Tashigi’s. Isuka was concerned first and foremost from sparing Ace of the burden of her feelings. Tashigi was only concerned with sparing herself. She was a barely held together piece of ceramic pottery and anything outside of what she’d become accustomed to for the past seven or so years would probably make her fall apart.

“Have you ever contacted him since?” Tashigi asked and looked up at the stars slowly blinking into existence in the inky sky.

“He emailed me about a year ago.” Isuka replied softly. “I didn’t respond, but I reread it like a creep every week.” She snorted at the end. “Must make me some kind of weakling.”

“Can’t be any worse than what I’m doing.”

“Oh ho, here we go. I’ve been curious about what’s been going on since the phone call.” Isuka seemed to be grateful that the intense conversation was off her personal life.

“Well,” Tashigi drawled and scratched the back of her neck, “Ya know how I’m on bed rest for three weeks?”

“Cause someone fucked up your Holy Trinity.”

“Yep, cause of that.” Tashigi chuckled. “I’ve been eating dinner at the Strawhat house every night since then.” Isuka’s eyed widened.

“What!?” Isuka guffawed with surprise. “You? Miss. Moral Compass?”

“I can’t believe that was an award at the academy.”

“How can you even have dinner with them?”

“Oh, I’m their neighbor. Don’t really have a choice.”

“Holy Gods.” Isuka’s face was twisted with sick glee at her friend’s predicament. “That’s golden. What’d Smoker say?”

“Why does everyone assume that Smoker and I are inseparable?”

“Because you kind of are, Weenie.” Isuka scoffed and rolled her eyes like she couldn’t believe Tashigi’s obliviousness. “I remember when we first got assigned to partners out of the academy. We met up after the first week and all you talked about was Smoker this, Smoker that, and Smoker said—”

“I did not.” Tashigi protested and felt heat creep up her cheeks.

“I honestly thought you were a little in love with him.”

“Ew, gross, that’d like wanting to date my dad.”

“I knew it was a daddy issues thing!” Isuka crowed and opened another beer.

“I do not have daddy issues!”

“Sure.” Isuka scoffed. “Don’t you call Hina and Smoker your work parents?”

“There is a specific word in there and its work. They are work parents.”

“Another specific word is also in there and its parents.”

“Shut up.” Tashigi laughed and lazily smacked Isuka’s shoulder.

They settled back into their lawn chairs and watched the stars.

“Is it nice?”

“Having dinner with the Strawhats? Well, yeah, actually, they’re really cool and weird and I feel included and—”

“No, no.” Isuka laughed. “Although, that is glorious dirt on how you feel about them. I was asking if it was nice to have a work family?”

“Oh.” Tashigi blushed and she thought about her coworkers. “Yeah, it’s nice.” Tashigi’s voice dropped a register and a soft smile over took her face. “Tsuru invites me for tea in her office once a week. Ya know as Deputy Chief, Tsuru is responsible for all the G precincts and should have her office in Marineford, but she requested it in the G-5 because she likes looking out for us.”

“Oh, yeah?” Isuka giggled.

“Yeah. Garp let’s Hina and Smoker run the precinct, because he was basically shoved into the Captain’s seat so Sakazuki didn’t have to say he fired a police hero, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t contribute. He’s always has good insight and never lets the brass push him around. He’ll always buy you lunch if he thinks you’ve skipped a meal.”

“That sounds nice.”

“It is actually, Koby and Helmeppo are having trouble in the police dorms and saving the cost of a meal puts them one step closer to affording an apartment. Those boys.” She chuckled. “They’re worse than me sometimes when it comes to considering it a work family. They sleep on my couches, they like it when I wash their clothes with my detergent, and they poke fun at me like little brothers should.”

“They look up to you, don’t they.”

“I hope they do, I try to be the best example I can be.” Tashigi smirked. “Gods knows Jango and Fullbody aren’t great examples. But that doesn’t make them bad people. They are absolutely off their rocker half the time, but the safest I’ve felt sometimes is when they’re flanking me. I know they truly care even if they’ve dumped a bucket of beans over my head.”

“Oh gods.”

“They’ve ruined more than a couple of my pantsuits. They once managed to dye Smoker’s hair bright red. That was a terrible day.”

“Hina has her hand full with him.” Isuka said with a reminiscent smile.

“It’s the other way around. Smoker has his hands full with Hina.”

“I must not know this version of Hina.”

“G-5 has changed us all. It used to be that Hina was like an mentor to me. Giving me fashion advice, setting me up on dates, or teaching me how to vault a fence in heels for undercover operations, but there was always a professional distance.” Tashigi explained. “But night shift closed that real quick. Hina is, apparently, a freak in the sheets.”

“I did not need to know that about them doing that.” Isuka groaned and shook her head vigorously, trying to erase the images.

“I had to hear it twice daily because they’d both talked to me.”

“Oh to be the trusted confidant of your superiors.”

“What? You don’t have that here?” Tashigi asked, surprised considering the glowing praise of her friend about Loguetown’s current offices and detectives.

“They’re all nice. Captain Ripper is great.”

“But.” Tashigi prompted, hearing the open note at the end of her friend’s sentence.

“But, there’s no one I really connect to. I get up, I go to work, I work hard, and then I go home. I attend work functions, but I don’t really go out of my way to hang out with them.” Isuka sighed deeply. “It’s not like when I worked with you or Smoker or even Hina.”

“Well…” Tashigi singsonged lightly. “You could always come back.”

“Huh?” Isuka scoffed in disbelief. She was wary of the conspiratorial light that danced in Tashigi’s dark eyes.

“Put in your transfer, come languish in the career hole that is the G-5.” Tashigi said teasingly. “We are stretched way too thin and all our cases will give you nightmares, but the coworkers are one in a million each.”

Isuka hooted and Tashigi grinned as she watched her friend’s nose scrunched in joy.

“Ask me again.” She said breathlessly when they stopped laughing.

“Huh?” Tashigi wheezed.

“On Tuesday, when you have to leave, ask me to transfer again.”

“What? Is asking you to transfer to the G-5, known career ender precinct, gonna have a different answer at my parent’s house?”

“Your parent’s house is a magical place.”

“It’s cause there’s a forge in the backyard, isn’t it?”

“Only house I know of that’s got one.”

“Then,” Tashigi said thoughtfully, “I will ask you on Tuesday.”

***********************************

Tashigi had forgotten that Loguetown could be fun.

Or at least that Isuka could make it fun.

On Sunday morning they peddled through the trails in the Loguetown foothills. Isuka hadn’t been to jazzed about the idea, given Tashigi’s knee, but the black haired woman assured her auburn haired friend that it’d be fine.

“I can’t believe you crashed three times.” Isuka chortled as they rested on a bench in Loguetown park and ate sandwiches purchased from Dante’s Deli.

“You laugh, but that’s actually a low number given my past experiences.” Tashigi defended herself through a mouthful of pastrami and rye. “Besides, those bushes caught me.”

“You really need to wear your glasses.” Isuka said and shook her head.

“I am wearing my glasses.”

“On your eyes, dummy.” Isuka reached over and flicked her friend’s red frames down from her untidy black hair.

“I can see just fine without them.” Tashigi pouted and shoved her glasses harder up the bridge of her nose.

“Is that why you talked to that post instead of the bicycle rental dude?”

Tashigi flushed.

“Oh, shut up and finish your turkey club.”

Isuka pressed her lips together in a suppressed smile.

“What should we do next?” Tashigi asked after she finished her lunch. “I’m sure the Loguetown historical museum has a new travelling exhibit, we could check it out.”

“As much as I love doing boring nerd stuff with you,” Isuka chuckled, “and I am referencing that History of Fencing exhibit you took me to for my birthday five years ago, I rather think we should partake in one of our rarer pastimes: shopping.”

“Eh? Why?” Tashigi asked, startled.

“My dearest and oldest friend,” Isuka sighed dramatically, “You dress like an elderly tourist on a cruise.”

“What do you mean?” Tashigi questioned and glanced down at her dark purple, mustard yellow, and vermillion floral patterned shirt and khaki shorts. “This outfit is fine.”

“Do you actually like floral shirts or do you wear them because the variety of colors best hide mustard stains.” Isuka reached over and swiped a blob of mustard off her friend’s collar.

“Damnit.” Tashigi hissed and checked her blouse for more spots; she found two.

“Well?” Isuka asked after her friend was done checking herself for food particles.

“Fine,” Tashigi huffed, “I need new casual clothes, but I’m not getting rid of my floral work shirts.” Those shirts were some of her favorite patterns and they brought no small amount of joy to her long days in the G-5.

“I would never touch your work wardrobe, that is sacred.” Isuka placated her friend. “Now, c’mon, I’m pretty sure the Antique House is open today.”

“At least you know not to take me anywhere gross and expensive.”

“I’m very aware your tastes are cheap and eccentric. I am also banning the purchase of floral shirts.”

“I understand where you are coming from, but I’m also incredibly insulted.” Tashigi scowled and hauled herself off the park bench.

Isuka looped her arm around her friend’s neck.

“And I am sorry about that.” Isuka said with mock seriousness. “Now, let’s go.”

They spent the rest of the afternoon ducking in and out of Loguetown’s vintage clothing and thrift stores. Tashigi found several articles of clothing that suited her taste and passed Isuka’s Acceptable-Casual-Clothing-Test. She bought several simple shirts, jean shorts, and summer dresses. There was also one dress that caught Tashigi’s eye, it was slightly fancier than what she was on the prowl for, but Succubus Tashigi purred every time she passed the dress. She circled back to the dress lazily every few minutes, until Isuka finally forced her to buy it.

Pleased with themselves the two detectives returned to Isuka’s apartment and collapsed.

“Are you done making me shop?” Tashigi whined, face down on the couch.

“You are released from the obligation of purchasing clothing under duress.” Isuka mumbled from the floor. “What do you want to do tomorrow?”

“Loguetown Art Museum is having an exhibition of Shandian art this month.”

“You answered that quick.”

“I looked it up while we were trying on clothes.” Tashigi said, eyes opened wide in a mockery of innocence.

“Why are you interested in Shandian art?”

“They have several lovely tapestries depicting ancient battle formations.”

“I would insult you and say you’re a military history nerd or something, but you’d take it as a compliment.” Isuka snorted and propped herself up on her elbows.

“Rich coming from a woman who once dragged me to a lecture on ornithology.”

“You enjoyed learning from the Bird Lady too.”

“I did. I did.” Tashigi laughed and rested her head on her arms. “I’m tired.”

“Go to bed, Weenie.” Isuka sighed and hauled herself of the floor. “For as long as I’ve know you, you’ve never gotten enough sleep.”

“Same to you, Booger.” Tashigi mumbled and drifted off with a snore.

Isuka plucked Tashigi’s red glasses off her nose and wrestled her friend’s shoes off. Then she dragged a blanket over her sprawled form. Secure in the knowledge that her friend was as comfortable as she was going to get fully clothed and on her couch, Isuka stumbled off to bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've decided that Ace should live, because Luffy and Sabo deserve time with their brother, at least in this little made up universe I've developed.  
> I hope I'm doing a good job with this story.   
> I don't own One Piece, it belongs to Oda.


	7. May V

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More of the History of Tashigi That I Made Up. I'm actually enjoying making up Tashigi's backstory, I would hope that Oda would give her one, if he ever does I will tweak accordingly. But for now she's free real estate.

Tashigi and Isuka haunted the halls of the Loguetown Art Museum for much of Monday.

Isuka was always surprised at the amount her friend knew about swords and warfare. Although she should really expect it by now. They’d become friends Freshman year at Loguetown High School for Girls due to Tashigi’s encyclopedic knowledge of various naval battles.

Tashigi imagined, during the moments when she found herself rambling wildly about her favorite things, that Swordswoman Tashigi was standing on top of her head pontificating greatly to the surrounding crowds. The crowds actually being Saint Tashigi and Succubus Tashigi listening politely on her shoulders. Succubus Tashigi was most likely asleep.

“And then General Adsila reappeared at the Birkans unprotected right flank and smashed all opposition.” Tashigi finished excitedly at the last tapestry. “Isn’t that epic? She was also one of the first Shandians to give offerings to the Giant Snake God.”

“A woman to admire.” Isuka agreed earnestly. “Say, Tashigi-girl, my favorite person, are you hungry?”

“Huh?” Tashigi hummed distractedly and tore her eyes away from the vividly colored tapestry to look at the auburn haired woman. “No, not really.”

“Ya sure?” Isuka quirked her eyebrow. “Cause you talked straight through lunch. It’s 3:30.”

Tashigi turned bright pink. Isuka visualized that vapors of embarrassment swirled around Tashigi’s head and fogged her glasses.

“I’m so sorry.” She stuttered and grabbed Isuka’s wrist. Tashigi dragged her friend from the temporary exhibit while profusely apologizing the entire time. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“To be honest it was very interesting.” Isuka laughed as they exited the Art Museum. “Especially after you went into that aside about how every culture was a head hunter culture at some point in time.”

“I thought you said I gave you that speech before?”

“Ah, so you were listening.”

“Of course!” Tashigi said indignantly as they sauntered down the stone steps of the museum, “It’s common courtesy for the lecturer to keep their ears open for questions from the class.”

“How are you not some kind of military history professor?” Isuka snorted in amusement as they walked down the street to Spinelli’s Oven.

“Tragic backstory.” Tashigi quipped. “What else was I gonna do? Not develop a hero complex?”

“True, true.” Isuka murmured. “We had all the prerequisites to become police.” They fell into comfortable silence for a few moments as they entered the cozy pasta restaurant.

It was a bit of a nicer place, but they didn’t stick out. Tashigi sported a pleasant pair of paisley shorts in three shades of pink with a white long sleeve blouse. Isuka wore a mustard yellow romper with a tasteful jean jacket.

“Should we just head to my parent’s house after lunch and stay over?” Tashigi asked as the waiter seated them.

“That would be the best.” Isuka agreed. “The upkeep is going to take most of tomorrow and I’d rather just be there at 8am instead of waking up an hour early to drive there.”

“Does it have to be exactly 8am?” Tashigi winced as she looked over the menu.

“I’m a girl who likes a good schedule.”

“Fine, but my hangover isn’t going to be pleased.”

“Given the beer I have left, you’ve worked through worse.”

The two women shared a laugh of embarrassment and then ordered their late lunch.

They discussed the exhibit through lunch and paid their bill whilst having a friendly argument about the effectiveness of sword versus arrows in battle.

Afterwards, Tashigi and Isuka returned to the apartment.

Tashigi packed her bag and secured Shigure to her belt. She’d left her sword behind during the day, feeling less on edge around Loguetown and Isuka. She knew this would be her last time in Isuka’s apartment this trip, so she double checked that she had everything.

Isuka returned from her bedroom with a small drawstring bag of overnight clothes and two sleeping bags. Tashigi grabbed the two remaining cases of beer.

They hopped on Isuka’s motorcycle and headed out of town.

Tashigi’s family home was located at the edge the grassy lowlands that extended east of Loguetown, the last house before the dense East Blue Province forests took over. It and its contents had been the only thing Tashigi inherited after their deaths. Being a minor at the time Tashigi hadn’t been able to do much with it. She’d just packed it and the memories of her parents away in the backyard shed.

Over the years she’d sporadically cleaned out the shed, selling the things she’d never use.

As the motorcycle rumbled up the grave driveway, Tashigi was struck with the sensation that she’d probably never use the house either. It, however, was something harder to part with.

The single story, blue painted house was all that remained of her parents.

Isuka parked against the side of the house

“We should touch up the paint.” Tashigi mumbled as they dismounted. She dragged her duffle and sleeping bag off the back of the bike as the sunset flared across the flaking paint.

“Is the can in the shed?” Isuka asked as they rounded the side of the house. The grass was waist high back here, the only break being the gravel driveway leading to the shed from the road and the thin paths from the sunroom to the forge.

“Probably.” Tashigi fiddled with her keyring before she discovered the key to the sunroom door.

They never went further into the house than the sunroom when they stayed. But Isuka could see the sparse, white cloth covered furniture through the dusty glass doors. Tashigi had talked extensively about her deceased parents when they’d first met, but when it came to the house the normally animated young woman retreated emotionally like a turtle.

Tashigi settled cross legged on her sleeping bag. She toyed with the tab on a beer can and flicked her eyes around the empty sunroom. When she’d lived in Loguetown and even when she was on Grandline Highway Patrol she’d returned to her family home four times a year to make sure it wasn’t falling apart. All those visits still hadn’t shaken the somber chill that overtook her when she crossed the threshold.

As selfish as it was, Tashigi was relieved when Isuka returned to Loguetown and offered to care for the house and her parent’s graves. Perhaps it made her an unfaithful daughter, but Tashigi would’ve rather remembered the happy memories with her mother and father than the two incidents that left her and orphan and a homeowner at age ten.

“Earth to Tashigi.” Isuka called through the bleary haze of recollection that swirled in Tashigi’s head. The black haired woman slowly shook her head before focusing on her friend.

“Sorry.” She muttered sheepishly and ruffled her hair tiredly.

“I can’t believe after all these years, I still have to tell you that you think too much.” Isuka said with an soft smile. She opened her own can of beer.

“I hate to break it to you, Booger,” Tashigi scoffed good naturedly, “but you get to share that privilege with several other people.”

“No.” Isuka gasped in mock horror. She could guess who she had to share the responsibility of preventing Tashigi from overthinking with. “Smoker has already taken so much from me, but this? The nerve.”

“Smoker’s not the only one.” Tashigi whined exasperatedly. “Even Roronoa tells me I think too much.”

“I’m not surprised.” Isuka smirked. From the incredibly long winded rants she’d listened to about Roronoa Zoro, she knew that he made Tashigi completely irrational and spiral into tunnels of overthinking.

“He’s absolutely insufferable, Isuka.” Tashigi huffed and took a deep swig of beer. “Do you know what he said to me the other day?”

“No, but I assume you’re going to tell me.” Isuka snickered, lips pressed into the edge of her beer can to suppress a grin. Tashigi didn’t notice her friend’s amusement, far to wrapped up in her frustration with Zoro.

“He offered to spar with me or train me or whatever.” Tashigi fumed. “It felt like pity, Isuka. I swear to you, the man never offers to train with anyone. He is planning something. It’s probably some kind of trap to find more ways to tease me.” Tashigi puffed her cheeks and pouted childishly. While she was fully aware that her personality quirks left her wide open for ridicule, it was worse with Zoro.

Despite her pride, she wanted the green haired man to respect her as a swordswoman and consider her a viable opponent. Something that was constantly undercut by her own clumsiness and big mouth. The swordsman seemed to get perverse joy from Tashigi’s fuck ups, which made her fuck up worse.

“As if I’d want to train with him anyway.” Tashigi sniffed haughtily.

“Liar.” Isuka accused and jabbed her friend in the shoulder.

“Ow. What was that for?” Tashigi asked and rubbed the injured spot.

“For lying.” Isuka said. “You bitch constantly about the man and do you know how it always ends?”

“Er?” Tashigi stuttered and felt her face heat. “Enlighten me.”

Isuka cleared her throat and adopted a mocking falsetto tone: “He’s so insufferable, Isuka. He acts like he’s hot shit and better than everyone else. And you know what the worst part is? He is a great swordsman and has every right to gloat. I just want to be a contender. I respect him so much. Blah blah blah.” Isuka waved her hand dramatically.

“I do not sound like that.” Tashigi screeched, face crimson in humiliation.

“I took some liberties.” Isuka shrugged. “But my point is, even if he’s offering to train you out of pity or a chance to tease you, it is an opportunity to learn from someone who’s skills you respect and admire. Chances like that don’t come around often.”

“Ugh.” Tashigi flopped backward onto her sleeping bag. Isuka was correct of course. Whatever cryptic reason Roronoa Zoro had for extending the offer to her, she’d be an absolute idiot if she didn’t accept. The man was trained by Dracule Mihawk for goodness sake, he had access to a previously unavailable wealth of knowledge.

“Are you sulking because I’m right?” Isuka asked as she stretched out on her own sleeping bag.

“Yes.” Tashigi grumped. “When did you get so smart and adult?”

“Well, I am older than you.”

“By only seven days!”

“And yet there was so much wisdom in those seven days.”

“Tsk. Drama queen.”

Tashigi and Isuka settled into companionable silence. Tashigi’s eyes traced the swirling lines in the beams of the sunroom roof. It would probably be more enjoyable to look at the stars, considering she rarely saw them in the city, but she couldn’t bring herself to move.

“Come back to the city, Isuka.” Tashigi said quietly. “Whatever happens, I can at least promise you won’t be alone.” Isuka was one of three people Tashigi would break traffic laws for; the other two were Koby and Helmeppo.

“Huh, now I don’t wanna be an adult.” Isuka mumbled.

“No, you do,” Tashigi snorted, “because the great thing about being an adult is you can get trashed instead of making decisions.” She rolled another can of beer toward her friend.

“You are a terrible role model.”

“Drink up, Buttercup.”

***************************

The heat of the Tuesday afternoon sun baked Tashigi under her baseball hat as she hacked away the waist high grass that had taken over the backyard. Her hangover throbbed behind her eyes. She and Isuka had finished off the rest of the beer the previous night and it had been way too long since either of them had drank that much.

Said auburn haired woman was trying to conquer the grass on her own side of the backyard. The prominent grimace on her face showed she was battling her own hangover. The two, despite intense aching in their skulls, had woken early in the morning to accomplish the chores they’d come to the house to do.

Tashigi had headed over the low hill behind the forge and storage shed to tend to her parent’s graves. The two simple gray headstones rested underneath a crooked willow tree that grew apart from the dense forest that surrounded the area. Tashigi weeded the base of the stones, trimmed the grass with hand shears, and washed moss and grime from her parent’s names.

Isuka had mowed the front lawn while Tashigi maintained the graves.

Then they’d touched up the paint on the house, before they tackled the backyard.

The grass in the backyard had grown so long because a warren of rabbits moved in shortly after Tashigi’s possession. As a ten-year-old, Tashigi had been unwilling to let the lawyers and state appointed caretakers clear them out to cut the grass. Some of that sentiment lingered into her adulthood, until Isuka had to relocate the warren last November, as the house was beginning to look ‘condemned’.

Tashigi regretted not moving the rabbits earlier, considering how hot, sweaty, and out of breath she was from swinging a machete. Plus side was, she got to use a machete.

She placed her hands on her knees and wheezed heavily.

“My side is at a manageable height.” She called breathlessly over to Isuka. “I’m gonna use the mower now.”

“Give me your machete.” Isuka coughed and wiped sweat from her forehead. “I think mine is too blunt.”

Tashigi handed her the machete and strolled over to the rusted mower.

With several strained grunts Tashigi yanked the mower string multiple times before it puttered to life. She pushed off with a short huff. The mower was old and hard to maneuver, leaving awkward tall patches in the grass.

While Isuka and Tashigi always tried their best to maintain the house and yard, they were only two people and grew exhausted by noon. This meant that trying to accomplish all their chores in a day lead to some patchy work. Over the past three years, Tashigi told Isuka she only had to maintain the graves and make sure nothing caved in.

It was more than a two person job, but Tashigi refused to let anyone other than Isuka help at the house. She’d admit it was a vulnerability thing. She was a relatively well-adjusted young woman, but having to explain why she owned a house she didn’t live in and didn’t want to sell was more of a hassle than it was worth.

Tashigi’s eyes traveled instinctively to the forge.

When her parents had bought the house, it had been a barn, but her swordsmith mother converted it into a forge. She remembered the backyard being a well maintained flat space perfect for practicing forms. She could almost see the outline of her father shifting smoothly through the basic stances in the tall grass.

Tashigi stopped the lawn mower at the end of her side of the backyard. Right in between the forge and storage shed.

She chewed the inside of her cheek as she stared at the padlocked forge doors.

Tashigi hadn’t been inside in eighteen years. Anytime she got close she’d fell nauseous and smell blood. While recently she’d been able to stand at the doors without feeling overwhelmed, she hadn’t tried opening the doors.

She wandered dazedly over to the forge doors.

Fingers brushed tentatively against the heavy padlock. The key hung on her keyring with her apartment key and the house keys. It was a very out of place skeleton key, but Tashigi had figured that was the point. Her mother had liked things old and weird.

Very carefully, Tashigi slid the key into the old padlock and heard the rusted mechanisms grind as she unlocked the door. The old chain slid through the handles of the forge doors and clattered onto the dirt.

Tashigi pulled open one door slightly.

She stopped as the door released a deep groan of disuse.

Through the crack in the door Tashigi could see the place where she’d spent most of her childhood. The bench where she’d read the latest Meito field guide while her mother folded a fresh blade continually over itself in the flames of the stone forge. The anvil where her mother would flatten a blade.

The bloodstain on the concrete floor.

Tashigi’s mother had been a beautiful woman. Dark blue hair and warm brown eyes. Tashigi remembered a mischievous and infectious smile. She had been the one to call Tashigi after a flightless bird, given that her own name, Tsubame, meant ‘barn swallow’.

Her mother had loved swords.

She’d believed that the sword chose the master and those who listened to the swords were the ones worthy to wield them. Tashigi remembered that being the only point of contention between her parents. Her mother sold a sword to anyone, regardless of affiliation: police or gangster.

Tashigi was her father’s daughter. She had his black hair and terrible eyesight. She also inherited his rigid sense of justice, or so she’d thought. Her father, Hayato, had been a good man and a good detective, but his view of the world had been rather black and white. He didn’t understand when her mother had said that a gangster could been a good man or woman.

Tashigi hadn’t understood either.

Her father had been her hero, how could he be wrong? But her mother had always been a smart mama, so who between the two was right?

As an eight-year-old she hadn’t pondered that question excessively, but it rather saddened her as teen that she’d never gotten the answer. As an adult Tashigi had made and executive decision that her father had been correct, given what happened to her mother. Although, her current state of mind gave her mother’s position more weight.

It had been a rather innocuous August day. Her mother had orders to fill and Tashigi hadn’t wanted to get under her feet, or be asked to weed the flower beds if her mother thought she was bored. Tashigi also wanted a chance to practice with a real blade instead of her training bokken while her mother was distracted. Tashigi had taken Shigure, the sword she loved the most out of her parent’s collection, and a book of her father’s advanced forms and disappeared over the low hill. She trained in the dense forest because the trees were relatively innocent things to test strikes on.

She’d stopped practicing when she realized the sun was lower in the sky than normal and her mother hadn’t called her for lunch. It wasn’t unusual for her mother to become engrossed in her work, but it was even later than usual. Then again, there had been a lot of orders.

Tashigi had wandered back over the hill and into the forge.

Tashigi wasn’t sure if it was shock or fear that didn’t let her comprehend the blood.

All she could recall was her mother laying on the floor of the forge with her eyes open.

She’d called her father on the emergency cell phone. She hadn’t been able to properly articulate what had happened, only that mother was hurt and Tashigi didn’t know what to do. Hayato had assumed his wife had burned herself while smithing again and promptly returned home to find hell on earth.

His wife was dead and his daughter traumatized.

It had been gangsters. They’d specialized in bank robberies wearing wolf masks. They’d heard Tsubame made swords for gangsters, but they hadn’t heard that she gave them only to gangsters she deemed worthy. Tashigi had been there when they first visited two days prior but she couldn’t remember them.

They’d returned that day to demand swords again, when Tsubame refused, they killed her a stole every sword they could find in the house and forge. They missed the six that Hayato kept locked in a trunk in his study.

Her father became determined to find the culprits and get the swords his wife treasured so deeply back from them. It did not help that Tashigi would wake from nightmares telling him the swords were crying.

It was during this time that Tashigi heard the voices of swords the loudest, that she decided to liberate the crying swords from the hands of those who misused them, and when she became interested in justice.

It was a dream she continued to try and fulfill, even if it was becoming almost impossible to achieve with her flatlining level of skill.

Her father had achieved his dream, if hunting down and bringing to justice his wife’s killers could be considered a dream. It had taken two years to the day, when he managed to corner the final man in a bank in Grandline City. The Loguetown Police Department had honored her father for exceptional services in the line of duty. Ten-year-old Tashigi had assumed that meant dying on the job.

Adult Tashigi _knew_ that it meant dying on the job.

She couldn’t resent her father, not even as a child without parents, she was too much like him. Justice over self; justice over everything else. Hayato had seen this end coming since he’d found his wife in a puddle of blood and his daughter crying next to her. He left Tashigi everything he and his wife ever owned.

“Never seen you open that door before.” Tashigi jumped sharply at Isuka’s soft voice.

Her friend had finished cutting the grass.

“I wanted to see if it still hurt.” Tashigi mumbled and eased the door closed.

“Does it?” Isuka asked curiously.

“Yeah, but in a different way.” Tashigi hadn’t realized it, but her mother’s death was slowly becoming the least awful thing she’d lived through. “It’s a pain I’ve adjusted to living with, like a scar that only hurts when it rains.” She absentmindedly brushed a finger over the scar on her shoulder where Monet’s bullet had torn through. The twisted scar tissue exposed by her racerback tank top.

Isuka stood silent as Tashigi relocked the padlock.

It was 3pm, two hours before Tashigi had to be on the 5pm bus back to Grandline City. Isuka and Tashigi could’ve done many things in that time, but over the years of friendship they’d developed a tradition before going periods of not seeing each other. They sat back to back in the shadow of the house in silence. It was the physical contact they needed the most.

“I’m going transfer to the G-5.” Isuka said quietly and dropped her head backward on Tashigi’s sweaty shoulder.

“What changed your mind?” Tashigi laughed in disbelief.

“I’ve been wanting to go back for a year now.” Isuka said tiredly, “Ever since you told me you got shot and the bulletproof vest didn’t catch it.”

“Coming down to the city to protect me, Booger?”

“Smoker seems absolutely willing to let you run head first into danger, so someone has to keep your head on your shoulders.”

“You act like you don’t charge in blindly too.”

“Within reason, Weenie.” Isuka huffed and jabbed an elbow into Tashigi’s side. The bespectacled woman giggled at her friend’s irritation. “Besides, I want friends less than twelve hours away.”

“Got lots of those.” Tashigi murmured happily.

“After my parents died,” Isuka started, “I dreamed about fire every night until Ace punched Draw’s lights out. Without knowing it the man placed a bandage over my most exposed wound and in turn I helped put four military grade bullets in his back. I now have a wound that I don’t know how to live with.” She took a deep and shuddering breath. “I want to learn how to live with it.”

“I don’t know if I can be the help you want me to.” Tashigi said nervously. However the hell she’d become adjust over the years might be only specific to her.

“Sometimes, Weenie, the best help is a sturdy friend with a free shoulder.”

“You know my senior superlative was Sturdy and Purdy.”

“Shut up you giant dork.” Isuka hollered and slapped Tashigi’s shoulder blade.

“Another senior superlative.” Tashigi giggled and turned to rest her chin on Isuka’s shoulder. “When are you thinking of transferring?”

“I have to wrap up all my open cases and find a replacement so Captain Ripper isn’t left high and dry.” Isuka sighed, “But there is a good officer taking the detective’s exam at the end of August, so the G-5 will have me by September.”

“Then I’ll see you in September, Booger.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Singing: Let's hope this isn't garbage.


	8. May VI

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last May chapter, I promise. I also want to thank everyone for their comments and kudos! I hope you guys like this chapter. More Zoro and Tashigi in this one and I hope its in character, I was writing at 3am.

Tashigi yawned and shivered as she shuffled home from the bus stop. It really was truly impossible to sleep on a bus, no matter how many years’ experience she had sleeping in awkward positions. She shuddered and stuffed her hands deep in her red sweatshirt pockets. Why did mornings have to be so cold?

She checked her watch: 6am. Ugh. Even Saint Tashigi agreed that it wouldn’t be a terrible thing to crawl back into bed for a few more hours.

Ah, her nice warm bed. Tashigi drooled at the thought. She only had a little ways to go before—

Tashigi stopped in her tracks and cocked her head in confusion. Was she seeing things? She reached under her glasses, rubbed her eyes, and blinked.

Roronoa Zoro strolled down the sidewalk toward her. He wore his usual dark green hoodie, with a white shirt underneath, and grey workout joggers

“Roronoa?” She asked in shock. Why was it him of all people?

“Glasses.” He rumbled, the only change in his face was a quirk in his eyebrow. “Yer back.” He ambled slowly up to her, one hand rested on his swords and the other scrubbing the back of his head.

“Uh, uh, yeah, I am.” Tashigi stuttered. Zoro was close enough that Tashigi could feel the body heat rolling off him. “Isn’t it a little early for you?”

“Yeah, well, Hawk Eyes is a friggin’ early bird. Likes his workers in at 6.” The one eyed man grumped. “Doesn’t matter that I don’t have anyone to teach until 7:30.”

“Roronoa,” Tashigi said exasperatedly as she checked her watch, “It’s 6:05.”

“Eh, so I’m a little late.” Zoro shrugged, “It’s Hawk Eyes own fault for moving the place around on me.” He looked around the area. “I think it’s the other way.”

“You got lost six feet outside your own street?” Tashigi gaped and Zoro turned the faintest shade of pink.

“I ain’t lost.” He growled, turned around, and stalked the opposite way down the street.

“Impossible man.” Tashigi huffed and then remembered her little discussion with Isuka. “Ah, Roronoa, wait!” She jogged down the street, slides flapping wildly and duffle bouncing awkwardly, as Zoro paused and looked back at her.

“Yes, Glasses?” He asked with a smirk as Tashigi stumbled to messy stop beside him.

“That offer you made me, like a week ago, to train with me.” Tashigi panted slightly and untangled herself from her suddenly twisted duffle. “Is it still open?”

“Are you accepting, Glasses?” Zoro said with a smirk and bent down slightly to get a better look at Tashigi’s face. “I thought training with a gangster was against protocol?”

“Sweet Meito.” Tashigi huffed, irritated. “You are so insufferable.”

“That is not a yes or no answer, Glasses?”

“Yes, fine, yes. I want to train with you.” Tashigi crossed her arms, red in the face, and pouted sullenly. She hated it when he got his way and got her all worked up.

“Great, let’s go.” Zoro said with a satisfied smirk and started off.

“Now?” Tashigi gawked and thought of her nice warm bed. Even Succubus Tashigi agreed that Zoro’s toned butt in workout joggers wasn’t a strong enough draw away from more fucking sleep. “But I just got back.”

“Excuses, Glasses.” Zoro stopped down the street. “I’m already on my way and you’re already dressed for it.” Tashigi glanced down at her sweatshirt and capri leggings. How could her comfy clothes be her downfall?

“I’m not mentally prepared.” Tashigi asserted. “I’m not in the right mindset to work out.”

“Bullshit.” Zoro scoffed and sauntered back up to her. “Stop stalling. We might as well start now, or you’ll use that excuse every time you need to train.” Tashigi hated how accurate his statement actually was.

“Fine, I just wanna sleep, you can understand that, huh?” Tashigi was willing to beg for more sleep. Swordswoman Tashigi wasn’t too jazzed about it, but sometimes you had to give up dignity to get what you wanted.

“And you’ll sleep even better after you train, c’mon.” Zoro grabbed her wrist, bent down, and suddenly Tashigi had the very familiar sensation of being thrown over Zoro’s shoulder like a bag of grain.

“Zoro!” She shrieked as she scrabbled to hold on to her bag, glasses, and Shigure. “Zoro, what the hell are you doing?” She whacked his back with her duffle.

“We are going to train, Glasses.” Zoro’s voice was muffled. “Stop wiggling.”

“I will not stop, you are man-handling me.” Tashigi yelled and tried to push herself out of Zoro’s grip.

“Not like I haven’t done it before.” Ah, yes, Punk Hazard Chemical Plant, the place where she’d been shot for the sixth time and the first time she’d been thrown over Zoro’s shoulder.

“I was critically injured at that time.”

“And yet you still managed to wiggle then too.” Zoro’s grip around her waist shifted down to her hips and his other hand rose to steady her thighs under her butt. “Seriously, stop moving.”

“Watch where you’re putting your hands.” Tashigi squealed, her face heating, and her hands twisted in the back of his hoodie. This was too much contact for her. She could feel the muscles of his shoulder rippling under her stomach and his back muscles shifted under her hands.

“Easy, Glasses, I’m not the Ero-Cook. I won’t grope you.” There was laughter in his voice, Tashigi heard it.

“Your hands are still too close.” She argued. “Just put me down.”

“Nope.”

“You’re enjoying this, you sadist.”

“Little bit, yeah.”

“Why?” Tashigi whined as she stopped struggling and flopped limply against Zoro’s back. He smelled nice, like salt water, mint, and metal. She wondered if it was his natural scent or some kind of laundry detergent.

“You’re very entertaining when you’re upset.”

“Curse you.” Tashigi sighed and propped her chin up with one hand.

“It’d be better if you actually cursed.” Zoro cackled.

“And give you the satisfaction? Never.” Tashigi tried to twist around to see where they were going.

“I thought we agreed to stop the wiggling?”

“I’m just trying to see where we are, Roronoa.” Tashigi caught a glimpse of an early morning jogger across the street. “Sir!” She shouted to him, “Call for help. I’ve been kidnapped.”

The man looked at her in confusion.

“Don’t listen to her. She’s a cop, she can handle herself.” Zoro called over to him and adjusted Tashigi on his shoulder.

The jogging man avoided eye contact with both of them and picked up his pace.

“Unbelievable.” Tashigi gaped after the man. “What if I was actually being kidnapped?”

“Yeah, but you’re not, so stop squirming and enjoy the ride.”

“Fine.” Tashigi snarled and flopped against his back again. She realized how close she was to his swords. “but I’m going to inspect your swords.”

“Don’t you fucking touch them, sword geek.”

“Put me down and I won’t.”

“Don’t sound so pleased, Glasses.” Zoro suddenly stopped. “Damnit, another dead end.”

“By the Meito.” Tashigi said in frustration. “Roronoa, you are not getting me lost. I’m looking this place up on my phone.” She dug around in her bag and pulled out her phone.

“I can find it on my own.” Zoro grumped.

“Just let me help. I promise I won’t squirm or touch your swords.”

“Fine. It’s called Kuraigana Dojo.”

“Kuraigana as in the uninhabited province?”

“It is inhabited. By Hawk Eyes eight months out of the year.”

“Unbelievable.” Tashigi muttered and pulled the map up on her phone. “Good news, we’re only five minutes away.”

“See, I was in the right place.”

“We are literally in a dead end alley.”

“Whatever. So should I turn around?”

“Yes, then turn right.”

He turned left.

“Other way, Roronoa.”

“Huh? Oh.”

It took ten minutes. When they finally pushed through the doors of Kuraigana Dojo, Tashigi and Zoro were arguing loudly with each other. The pink haired young woman at the front desk scowled in disgust at the yelling pair.

“How are you still alive, Roronoa? I told you to go straight and you hung a U-turn.”

“I thought I saw a mailbox I recognized.”

“This wouldn’t have been so hard if you’d just put me down.”

“So you could skip out on training? I don’t think so.”

“Do I even want to know?” The curly pink haired woman monotoned from the reception desk and put another coat of black polish on her thumb nail. The two stopped arguing abruptly. Tashigi turned pink when she realized there was an audience to her humiliation.

“Roronoa, put me down.” Tashigi spluttered. Zoro ignored her.

“Ghost Girl,” Zoro said diplomatically, “this is Glasses and Glasses, that’s Ghost Girl.”

“My name is Perona, Green Freak.” Perona hissed venomously. “I refuse to accept such an uncute nickname.”

“Roronoa, please don’t introduce me as Glasses.” Tashigi sighed. “My name is Tashigi.” She waved awkwardly while still slung over Zoro’s shoulder.

“I don’t really care.” Perona said dismissively. “Vegetable Head, you’re late and I’m telling the crab-ass.”

“Whatever.” Zoro shrugged. “We’re gonna train.”

“It was nice meeting you.” Tashigi called as Zoro hauled her around the corner and down the hallway.

Perona waved limply and rolled her eyes, muttering about sword freaks.

Zoro headed to the last door at the end of the hall.

“Ow.” Tashigi yelped as Zoro dumped her unceremoniously on the floor.

“Shoes off, Glasses.” The green haired man said as he popped of his sneakers and removed his swords from his side.

“I’ve been in a dojo before, Roronoa.” Tashigi huffed and took off her slides. She placed them and her duffle next to the lip of the floor. She took off her sweatshirt and struggled a little to keep her tank top down at the same time. Her glasses were a little askew afterwards.

“Real smooth, Glasses.” Zoro chuckled as he stretched on the mats. Tashigi’s face heated. He’d taken his hoodie and shirt off. “Also, since this is my classroom, you must call me Master Zoro.”

“Not a chance in hell, Roronoa.” Tashigi said as she unbraided her hair and pulled it up into a bun.

“Just Zoro then?” He smirked. “You called me Zoro earlier.”

“I was in distress.” Tashigi harrumphed. “I’ll call you your first name if you call me by mine.” There’s an ultimatum that would stop him.

“Completely fine by me, Tashigi.” He rumbled and smirked up at her through a half lidded eye.

Heat pooled immediately in her lower abdomen. She stifled a pleasant shudder at the rough formation of her name on his tongue. One man should not have that much power over her just by saying her name.

“So are we going to spar, Zoro?” Tashigi couldn’t stop her voice from shaking at the end. She gripped Shigure tightly to keep herself under control. She resisted every urge to tackle the shirtless swordsman.

“No sword fighting today.” The green haired man smirked and pushed himself off the mats and into a standing position. “Two little yellow and pink birds told me your hand to hand is ass.” He raised his hands and dropped one foot behind the other. “So we start with that.”

“Oh shit.” Tashigi hissed nervously. Koby and Helmeppo were so dead.

********************************

Tashigi grunted in pain as her back smacked the mats for the umpteenth time.

“Stay rooted, Tashigi.” Zoro said above her.

“I know. I know.” Tashigi growled and scrambled to her feet. “I’m ready.”

“Uh huh?” Zoro said, unconvinced, and looked at her loose stance. “You don’t want to take any more time to set up?”

Tashigi pressed her lips together in frustration, before she adjusted her stance into a stronger position. Satisfied she was at a better starting point, Zoro adopted his own stance. The moment he settled in, Tashigi launched herself at him.

With a savage smirk, he blocked the flurry of kicks she aimed at his midsection.

Tashigi deflected the punch he sent at her face.

Zoro swept a leg at her ankles. Tashigi jumped over his leg, landed firmly, and slammed both palms into his shoulders. He grinned widely as he stumbled backward.

“Nice, Glasses.”

“Shut up, Roronoa.” Tashigi snarled as she blocked the kick to her shoulder. She sweated up a storm and tried her best to get the one eyed swordsman to break just a little. The entire hour they’d spent fighting didn’t even seem to faze him. She felt like it was barely a warm up for him. “Why. Won’t. You. Go. Down?” She struck at his abdomen repeatedly and he deflected her hands easily.

“Try harder.” He smirked and stepped forward into her space. Tashigi ducked under his outstretched arm.

“Ah ha!” Tashigi crowed in victory and planted her back against his chest. She grabbed his arm and leveraged him over her shoulder.

Or she tried to leverage him over her shoulder. Zoro wouldn’t budge.

“What the hell?” She grunted and tried again. Zoro shook against her back. He was trying to suppress his laughter as Tashigi strained to judo flip him over her shoulder. “I have flipped guys twice your height and weight, why won’t you move?”

“I’m special like that.” Zoro chuckled.

Tashigi growled and turned around to try and push him backwards. He wouldn’t move. She placed her shoulder against his pecs and tried to shove that way. Nothing. She put both hands on his shoulders and pushed. Her feet wind milled in place like she was running on a treadmill.

“How?” Tashigi snarled right in his crookedly grinning face. She could see the perverse amusement at her expense glittering in his good eye. “How?”

“Firmly rooted.” He hummed.

“Urgh!” When consumed with frustration Tashigi transformed into what Jango and Fullbody called Rage Klutz. Supreme self-destructive clumsiness that took out anyone in a two foot radius.

Tashigi backed up, vice grip still on Zoro’s wrist and bicep. She planted one foot unsteadily on the floor and twisted to aim her other foot at Zoro’s hip, trying to kick and flip him at the same time.

Her unsteadily planted foot flew out from under her and she toppled backward.

“Fuck.” She hollered as she careened wildly into Zoro’s extended arm. The leg she’d struck out at Zoro’s hip swung wide and she caught his side.

“Oof.” The man grunted and stumbled sideways as Tashigi’s flailing limbs knocked the air out him.

The two plunged to the mats in a tangle of limbs and curses.

“Ow.” Tashigi groaned and rubbed the part of her neck that landed on Zoro’s bicep. A bicep that trembled under her head. She rolled over to look at the green haired man. His head was turned away from her with one hand pressed to his mouth. His whole chest shook with suppressed laughter. “Are you laughing at me, Zoro?”

“I can’t believe it.” He wheezed between deep rumbling chuckles. “It took you that long to klutz out.” Tashigi blushed in embarrassment. She liked the way he laughed; deep and with his whole chest.

“To be fair,” Tashigi defended, “you got me on my back before I could put myself there.”

Zoro started to laugh harder. Tashigi realized belatedly how her words sounded.

“That’s not what I meant.” Tashigi sputtered and hurriedly tried to push herself off the floor. A tweak of pain shot through her knee and Tashigi sucked a sharp breath through her teeth. She’d twisted her knee when she’d fallen backward into Zoro. She sat back down hard.

“What’s wrong?” Zoro asked and moved to kneel next to her.

“Overworked my knee.” Tashigi sighed and rolled her capri legging over her knee cap. It was yellowed, like the bruises on her ribs and highlight on her cheek, but it wasn’t swollen. If only she remembered exactly how Chopper massaged her knee.

“Lemme do it.” Zoro knocked her hand lightly away and sat down across from her. He hauled her leg slightly into his crossed lap. Tashigi didn’t understand how she could still be overwhelmed by his touch.

“Um, you don’t need to—" Tashigi stopped abruptly as Zoro pressed calloused thumbs to the tender skin around her knee. He worked delicately at the knots and pain coiled in and around her knee cap. “How are you so good at that?”

“When I told Chopper I asked you to train with me,” Zoro smiled slightly, “he gave me a three hour lecture on what to do if you overwork yourself.”

“Am I really that predictable?” Tashigi groaned and rubbed a hand across her eyes.

“Chopper’s exact words were: It’s something you’d do Zoro and she’s just like you.”

“I’m offended he’d make that comparison.”

“I know. I’m a way better swordsman than you.”

“Jerk.” Tashigi hissed and kicked his side. “I’m a great swordswoman.”

“Didn’t say you weren’t.” Zoro smirked. “I’m just better. Don’t kick the man that’s massaging your knee out of the kindness of his heart.”

“Uh huh,” Tashigi scoffed, “kindness? Not because if you didn’t the cutest doctor in the world would perform a live autopsy on you?”

“Chopper would never perform a live autopsy on me.” Zoro scoffed. “Four hour chew out on shirking my responsibility maybe.”

“I’m a responsibility of yours now?”

“Something like that.” The man answered with a small smile.

Tashigi hummed crossly and drew her other knee up to her face to try and hide another damn blush. She was both pleased and irritated that someone felt responsible for her.

“Just so you and your friends know,” Tashigi said after collecting herself, “I can be responsible for myself. I don’t need anyone to look out for me.”

“Don’t take offense, Glasses.” Zoro sighed as his knuckles kneaded down her calf. “I don’t think you can’t take care of yourself or that you need a babysitter. I’d just rather you not get unnecessarily injured doing some reckless shit, as you like to do.” Zoro rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck before resuming work on her knee. He’d gone slightly up her thigh.

“I don’t do reckless shit.” Tashigi protested slightly. She did. But she wasn’t about to get lectured about it by Roronoa Zoro of all people.

“There is a bullet scar on your shoulder that says otherwise.”

Tashigi reflexively reached for her shoulder before she stopped herself.

“Fine. I’m a little bit reckless.” She huffed. “But so are you.”

“Yeah, yeah, and I don’t want a babysitter either.” Zoro glanced up at her with his good eye. Tashigi realized that he was much higher up her thigh than before. “Yet somehow I got you.”

“What do you mean, Zoro?” Tashigi breathed. She overworked her knee. He was just massaging her because she overworked her knee. Nothing else. Her brain was just imagining anything sultry in his eye.

“You registered my swords.”

Ah, shit. He’d found out.

“You were running around with unregistered blades.” Tashigi said hurriedly, color rising in her chest. “Any cop with half a brain would’ve taken them from you. I did it so the only person who could take them would be me, when I defeat you.” She pushed her glasses into her hair, crossed her arms over her chest, and puffed out her cheeks in mortification.

“Yeah.” Zoro drawled in amusement. “But did you have to do it every time I got a new sword?”

“A good police officer is always thorough.” She insisted.

“I think,” Tashigi was tugged sharply forward and Zoro’s breath ghosted the side of her face, “you were looking after me. Which means I can look after you.”

“Ridiculous.” Tashigi whispered. “I just want to take your swords.”

Zoro’s hands curled around her thighs.

“I’d like to see you try, Glasses.” Zoro’s voice smirked in her ear. She shivered.

Tashigi steadied her erratic breathing and turned to look straight into his dark eye. The pressure of his hands on her thighs increased slightly. She discovered a great urge to tackle him and stick her tongue down his throat.

“Fight me, Roronoa.” She murmured.

“In what way, Glasses?” He asked and a crooked grin stretched his lips.

Oh, in every way, Demon Swordsman. But right now? With your clothes off.

Tashigi’s fingers twitched from her lap towards Zoro’s chest.

“Um? Master Zoro?”

Tashigi froze at the childish voice.

She twisted around and saw a confused group of school children in little black uniforms standing in the sliding doorway.

Oh, this was truly mortifying.

“Hey kids, is it 7:30 already?”

“Yep.” Called one helpful kid from the back to the group.

“Well, Zoro it was really nice training with you I gotta go.” Tashigi blurted and jumped out of her sudden position in Zoro’s lap.

She skidded to her slides, grabbed her duffle and Shigure.

“One side, kids.” She ordered nicely and sprinted through the part they’d made.

“See you tomorrow, Glasses.” Zoro called mirthfully after her.

****************************************

Tashigi stumbled through her apartment door.

Koby and Helmeppo were stretched out on her couch and loveseat. Right where she left them. They were awake, eating her cereal and watching cartoons.

“Tashigi.” Koby said happily through a mouthful of Fruity Bites. “You’re back.” His rumpled hair was pushed back with a yellow paisley bandana and he wore an oversized periwinkle sweatshirt with a corgi on the front. Giant, adorable child.

“How’s Isuka?” Helmeppo asked as he slurped his milk. His long blond hair was up in a bun and he had gold eye masks under each eye. Bratty, little brother.

“Absolutely wonderful. Are those mine?” Tashigi asked with a frown and quirk of her eyebrow.

“I swear this is the first time I’m using them.” Helmeppo objected quickly. “The Strawhats had a party last night and my hangover bags were terrible.” Koby nodded in agreement.

“Speaking of the Strawhats—”

“We didn’t let them in.” Koby interrupted loudly and nervously. Helmeppo shook his head vigorously. Tashigi narrowed her eyes. Someone definitely got it. If she had to guess Nami or Luffy.

“Uh huh.” She said suspiciously. “Not what I’m talking about.”

“Oh, well, what then?” Helmeppo asked with anticipation.

“Who told Roronoa Zoro my hand to hand was ass?”

All the blood drained from Koby’s face as he choked on his Fruit Bites. Helmeppo muttered the word shit repeatedly under his breath. Tashigi was mildly amused at their nerves.

“You ran into Zoro already?” Koby gasped as his airway cleared of Fruit Bites.

“I just trained with him for the past hour,” Tashigi said slowly, “because someone said my hand to hand was ass.”

“They were just asking questions.” Helmeppo squawked. “They said you don’t talk about yourself much. We didn’t even say ass, we just said it took you three tries on your last hand to hand certification.”

“Did you happen to mention it was around the time I was recovering from having a bullet lodged in my shoulder?”

“Oh,” Koby blushed, “I forgot that’s when that happened.”

“I could have been sword fighting for, not getting my leg swept out from under me.” Tashigi sighed and slumped over the loveseat.

“I’m sorry, Tashigi.” Koby patted her sweaty hair.

“How can we make it better?” Helmeppo asked eagerly. Tashigi seemed to be in a forgiving mood.

“I’m going to take a shower and a nap.” Tashigi sighed wearily. “Just be as quiet as possible.”

“We’ll do one better.” Koby offered. “We’ll clear out until you wake up. Just call us or come over to the Thousand Sunny house.” He tossed off his fluffy blue muffin patterned blanket—purchased for his use at Tashigi’s by Tashigi—and motioned for Helmeppo to get up.

“But my eye care.” Helmeppo whined as he pushed off his own fluffy muffin patterned blanket—in red.

“You can finish your eye care at the Strawhats.” Koby sighed long-sufferingly and grabbed Helmeppo’s cereal bowl to place them both in Tashigi’s kitchen sink.

“I love you both.” Tashigi mumbled gratefully.

“Yeah, yeah, we love you too.” Helmeppo huffed as a grinning Koby hustled him out her front door.

Deep sigh fluttered past her lips as she sagged against the back of the loveseat.

Tashigi pushed off and walked into her bedroom. She dumped her duffle at the foot of her bed. She stripped off her sweaty workout clothes and tossed them into her hamper.

Into her tiny bathroom and cranked on the shower.

Tashigi detangled her hair ties from her hair as the water steamed in the stall behind her.

She dropped her glasses on the edge of the bathroom sink.

Tashigi stepped under the rapidly warming water. As the water flowed down her body, Tashigi mulled over what had happened at the dojo.

What had she been doing?

What had Zoro been doing?

Had he been teasing her? Or had he been getting her flustered to ask her about certifying his swords? No, she’d been grumpy about the Strawhats concern for her. About Zoro’s concern her. There was no reason he’d have that in his head unless he truly wanted to point out to her that she was deeply hypocritical for looking out for him and the Strawhats, but getting all huffy for being clucked over a little.

Did he really need to get that close?

Tashigi flushed under the hot water and grabbed her shampoo.

She’d been dangerously close to tossing all dignity out the window and tackling him to the mats in a completely different way. It had been all she wanted to do in the heat of it, but looking back she was thoroughly embarrassed by every breath hitch and pink cheek. Zoro must think she’s some horny idiot, hot and bothered by a knee massage.

What if she had kissed him?

Tashigi shook her head as the shampoo washed out. She grabbed her conditioner and body wash and stepped slightly away from the stream of water.

If she kissed him he wouldn’t have responded. She wasn’t that person to him. She was an annoyance that demanded to fight him every five days. As completely non-sexual of a being as she could ever become.

But what if he’d responded?

Tashigi paused in lathering her hair, body soap dripped down her legs.

What if he had kissed her back? What then? Could she date him? No, that was too serious. She couldn’t think about that. Could she sleep with him? Absolutely. Then she’d have to deal with the aftermath. Tashigi knew she was a sensitive person. She internalized a lot of guilt and mistakes that she probably didn’t need to. She obsessed over small details and every case seemed to get personal for her.

If she slept with Roronoa Zoro, she’d never be able to just let it be once.

Tashigi stepped back under the stream of water.

Her life was a teetering Jenga tower of controlled messes. Work piled heavily on top and bottom while her personal life was a lone brick in the middle. Hina always said a significant other could be a source of support for her, another brick in her Jenga tower.

The thing is, if a brick didn’t want to stay, they’d be very likely to take the whole tower down with them. Tashigi liked to snarl her emotions so deeply into everything that even a purely sexual relationship would probably become something serious for her. If she tried to keep her emotions out of it and to herself, well one they’d splash all over her face and two, she’d be about as much fun as a dead fish. Tashigi liked to enjoy relationships when she had them.

Tashigi pressed her forehead against the tile.

She couldn’t do anything with Roronoa Zoro beyond training.

She’d analyzed every possibility. Whether he reciprocated or not, something would go wrong and she wouldn’t be able to handle the consequences. She had Isuka as a partial example.

Besides, she was already involved with the Strawhats enough to kill her career. Tashigi didn’t want to do anything else to bring Sakazuki’s heat down on the G-5. She closed her eyes resignedly and flicked the water off.

Justice over self.


	9. June I

“Fullbody?” Tashigi called from her folder covered desk. “Where’s the case file for last week’s B&E?” She peaked over her computer to Fullbody’s desk right next to hers.

“In purgatory. With me.” The older pink-haired man muttered, face first on his desk.

“Not this again.” Tashigi mumbled and rubbed her face. “Fullbody, give me the file.”

“You’re so cold. All business. Just like her.” Fullbody moaned and brought a limp hand down on one of his many files then pushed it haphazardly towards her. Tashigi caught it before they flew off the desk and onto the floor. Impressive for not wearing her glasses.

“Can’t you do something about this?” Tashigi huffed and turned to the gray-haired man at the other desk next to her, pushed up against Fullbody’s. Jango stroked his goatee and stared at his catatonic pink-haired friend.

“I got him to stop swallowing hard boiled eggs whole, didn’t I?” The man with the heart shaped shades sighed. “Heartbreak takes time, Tashigi.”

“Heartbreak is terrible for my filing system.”

“Monstrous Ice Queen.” Fullbody wailed. The entire precinct reached into desk drawers for noise canceling headphones. Tashigi put her head in her hands.

“Somebody put a sock in him, or I will.” Smoker growled from the white haze that surrounded his desk. He sat by himself under an open window for a reason.

“Diana.” Fullbody cried and pulled a bag of hard-boiled eggs from hell knows where.

“How’d he get those eggs in here?” Helmeppo gagged by Hina’s desk. The woman’s nose was wrinkled in disgust. “I thought they patted him down at the door?”

“They must’ve missed that bag.” Tsuru grimaced from Garp’s office doorway.

“Fullbody. Hand over the eggs.” Tashigi demanded as she rounded the desk.

“No.” The grown man pouted and popped an egg in his mouth.

“Buddy, c’mon.” Jango’s voice was muffled as he held his arm over his mouth and nose. The man hated eggs for some reason. “Diana wasn’t even that great of a girlfriend.”

“How can my best friend betray me in such a way?” Fullbody accused. Tashigi inched toward the detective as he focused on his grey-haired partner.

“She walked all over you.” Jango argued.

“It was love.” Fullbody yelled as he jumped to his feet. Tashigi yanked the egg bag from his arms. “My eggs!” Tashigi sealed the bag and released the breath she’d been holding.

“Stay back.” Tashigi hissed and held the hard-boiled eggs away from him. “I will not let you ruin another protein for me.”

“Tashigi-baby,” Jango pinched the bridge of his nose, “you gotta let the peanut butter thing go.”

“It was my favorite sandwich spread.”

“You can still eat it.”

“Not without imagining it slathered all over your fucking dicks.”

“Uh, guys?” A timid voice called. Tashigi and Jango stopped yelling and turned to the entrance of the bullpen. Koby stood with an amused and irritated Baines cuffed by his side. “Interrogation time?”

“Fucking finally.” Smoker growled and stood from his desk, adjusting his sling. “All whiny babies yelling about eggs and heartbreak and fucking peanut butter are banned from interrogation unless I say so.” Tashigi purpled in embarrassment.

“Hina agrees.” The statuesque pink haired lieutenant said seriously. “That was very childish.” She turned and strode down the hall to the interrogation rooms.

“C’mon, dirtbag.” Smoker gripped Baines elbow and lead him down the hall after her. Tashigi felt a twinge of guilt as she watched the purple haired man limp after her superior. Maybe she really had overdone it.

“Great, just great.” Tashigi scowled and flopped back into her chair. “You made Smoker mad at me.” She wasn’t even interested in her B&E anymore…yes, she was. Tashigi flipped open the case report.

“You made Smoker mad at you, Goody-Goody.” Jango snarked. Fullbody had returned to his position face down on his desk.

“Yeah, I know.” Tashigi grumbled. “Doesn’t make it any less upsetting.”

“I learn way too much about you old losers every time I come into work.” Helmeppo complained as he sauntered up to the cluster of desks.

“Old?” Tashigi scoffed. “I’m only one year older than you.”

“Losers?” Jango squawked. “I’m hip.”

“Nobody says hip anymore, Jango.” Koby sighed as he approached from the other side. “What are you guys up to?”

“Nothing more interesting than escort duty.” Helmeppo said dismissively. “How come they always pick you to bring the perps in from Impel Down?”

“I have a spotless record.” Koby preened. “What about you, Tashigi?”

“Finishing paperwork for the B&E over on Xavier Street.” Tashigi exhaled as she filled out the forms. “It’s Jango and Fullbody’s case but it’s the same group that hit the houses on Richmond Ave and Feldspar earlier this month, which were my cases.”

“Wait, so you got them?” Koby questioned. He’d helped her on those cases.

“All three sitting in the cells right now.” Tashigi smirked. “Which puts me up three points.” She turned and gestured proudly to the tally marks on a whiteboard behind their trio of desks. Ten neat blue marks scored under the heading Tashigi, while only seven marks of varying colors and lengths scored under the heading Jango and Fullbody.

“Hey, I’m a man down.” Jango defended and gestured wildly at the unresponsive Fullbody. “We were cruising until Diana dumped him. Once he gets out of his funk, you are going down.”

“It’s literally two against one.” Tashigi furrowed her brow at the older detective. “You literally should be winning by manpower alone. I’m only counting the arrests I make without Smoker-san too; my numbers are going to go down once the man gets out that sling.”

“Okay, show-off, we all can’t be Super Detectives.”

“Super Detective Tashigi.” Koby and Helmeppo sang lightly under their breaths. “Saving the day one form at a time.” They snapped their fingers a little.

“Don’t you boys have work to do?” Tashigi questioned with her lips pursed to suppress a smile. The two officers giggled and walked away from the trio of desks.

“Super Tashigi.” Fullbody mumbled. “For real though, how’d you get 10 arrests in two and a half weeks?”

“Most of them were multiple arrests like the B&E trio.” Tashigi said as she flipped through her files. “Half of them came from that little money laundering operation I was assigned when we first got back.” She paused and rubbed a knot in the side of her neck.

“Stressful spar this morning?” Fullbody snickered.

Tashigi felt the urge to put her pseudo baby brothers in body bags. It wasn’t that they’d tattled intentionally. They just liked to chatter without filter. It was only Fullbody and Jango, at least. Tashigi had tackled them before they could spread it around that she spent an hour ever morning training with ‘the enemy’.

They’d only promised not to tell after she agreed to pay their tab at Kuzan’s for the next month. Which made her wallet cry, but her secret was safe. Not like it was any special kind of secret anyway; she’d thoroughly shot that horse in the face.

Zoro arrived at her door at 5:30 every morning and they were at Kuraigana Dojo fifteen minutes later. Tashigi would spend an hour sparing with him at hand to hand or sword fighting. By 6:45 Tashigi would be on the bus to work. She’d clock in, change, then start her day.

This tight little schedule ensured that she never had another run in like the first training session. Sure, she klutzed out, but she no longer took Zoro down with her, nor did she injure anything that would require massaging. If things got ‘heated’ in anyway, Tashigi didn’t indulge it as she had the first time.

Zoro was becoming rather short with her. He also hadn’t called her by her name since the first spar. To be fair, Tashigi had refused to call him anything other than Roronoa, so that was her own doing.

“That is none of your business, Lover Boy.” Tashigi gritted out and closed the B&E case file. “Weren’t you distraught five minutes ago?”

“Still am.” Fullbody said sadly. “But heartbreak is funny that way.”

“I cannot understand.” Tashigi huffed. “You’re all over the board, why can’t it just be one way? Either be okay or be inconsolable.”

“You’ve never been in love, have you, Tashigi-girl?” Jango laughed as Fullbody shook his head at her naivety.

“I’ve had boyfriends.” Tashigi pouted. “And I was either distraught or fine after a breakup.” She did not like how the two men were glancing in between each other with their pitying ‘oh-she-doesn’t-know’ smiles.

“That’s not the same.” Fullbody said, in a tone that reminded Tashigi of several rather holier-than-thou teachers she’d had in school.

“How is it not the same?” Tashigi asked, annoyed at being talked down to.

“Did you ever tell those silly little boyfriends of yours you loved them?”

“I—" Tashigi paused and pursed her lips. She had not. To be fair the longest of her previous relationships had been six months.

“Take that as a no.” Jango cackled lightly.

“What difference does it make?” Tashigi muttered. Her breakups still hurt

“Love is irrational.” Fullbody explained. “My feelings for Diana,” his voice hitched a little at his ex-girlfriend’s name, “are twofold. I am deeply upset she left me and it’s a hollow ache in my chest. But at the same time, I want her to be happy and if it isn’t with me then she should find someone else.”

“That’s why you oscillate back and forth?” Tashigi said slowly, trying to understand.

“He’s simplifying it.” Jango sighed. “He’s also leaving out that he’s a very emotional man.”

“There is nothing wrong with being in touch with your feelings, Jango.” Fullbody sniffed.

“I know and I love that about you.” Jango reassured his friend. “But our Goody-Two Shoes has the emotional range of a filing cabinet.”

“Filling cabinets have great range.”

“Don’t make this sexual, Tashigi-baby.”

“So, what you’re saying is that Tashigi can’t understand why I’m upset because she’s emotionally stunted?” Fullbody said and his lip quivered. “Cruel Ice Queen.” He sobbed and slammed his face back down on the desk.

“I can understand.” Tashigi winced and reached into her desk for a pair of noise canceling headphones. “I just haven’t personally experienced…this.” She gestured at Fullbody’s trembling form.

“Give it time.” Jango shouted to penetrate the headphones. “We’re much older than you.”

“I don’t think this is a lesson I want to learn in time.” Tashigi yelled back as Jango had put on his own headphones. The heart shaped glasses wearing man smiled cryptically at her and resumed his paperwork.

Tashigi grumped. She had a rich and vibrant emotional life. If she was a filing cabinet, then she was a full and well-organized one. So, she hadn’t been in love, big deal, that didn’t mean she was stunted. She had her weird feelings for Zoro, although she’d been classifying them mostly as lust and frustration. There were her complicated feelings for justice.

But she wasn’t supposed to have complicated feelings about gangsters and justice.

She blew a frustrated breath out of her nose. Paperwork wasn’t this complicated. She should just do paperwork for the rest of her life, just skip people entirely.

With puffed cheeks and wrinkled brows, Tashigi dropped the finished B&E case file on another stack of finished files. She picked up the stack and puttered off to the file room.

When Tashigi and Smoker had come to the G-5 the file room had been a mess. Whomever had been filing before her had filed cases by perp hotness, which was an incredibly subjective system because Tashigi didn’t think several of the tens should be tens. Which was not the reason she changed the system, no matter what anyone said.

“Perp hotness, honestly.” Tashigi muttered to herself as she slid files into cabinets and evidence boxes. Headphones hanging around her neck. “They didn’t arrest anybody above an eight anyway.”

Tashigi opened the door to the file room and jumped three feet.

Garp hovered in the doorway.

“Garp-san!” Tashigi stuttered as she clutched her chest. The man was too quiet for his large size. “W-What can I do for you?”

“You know Smoker gets his sling off tomorrow, right?” Garp said in his gravelly voice.

“I knew it was soon, but tomorrow is great.”

“Yeah, great.” The old man didn’t sound to jazzed.

“Is that a bad thing, Garp-san?”

“Once Smoker gets his sling off, I have no reason to hold back big cases.” Garp sighed. “Which means we’re going to have to pass the Baines case onto the DA.”

“Sir!” Tashigi objected immediately. “The case isn’t finished.”

“That’s the thing, Tashigi.” Garp scratched his beard. “It is finished. We shut down Baines’ entire operation. Even if Baines isn’t talking, Johnson has spoken enough for both. The entire trafficking operation is busted, we have the warehouse and every distributer. Yes, it was bigger than the few girls reported missing to us and yes, we haven’t been able to recover the girls that had already left the distributor, but it’s enough to put Baines away. We have other cases; we have to move on.”

“Garp-san,” Tashigi said evenly, trying not to shout, “You are making excellent points, but you and I both know that Baines was involved in more than just sex trafficking. Those encoded books we found were for more than just a trafficking operation, plus he needed more than the guys we found at the warehouse to keep it quiet. He needed more than Johnson on the inside.”

“Baines isn’t talking.” Garp said gruffly. “Tsuru and I won’t be able to get the brass to sign off on more resources poured into him on what _might_ be a bigger operation.”

“But sir—”

“Tashigi.” The bespectacled policewoman pinched her lips together at the sternness in his voice. “Unless you can bring proof of a larger operation. We can’t do anything. So, help Hina finish the paperwork and move on.”

Garp left her fuming in the doorway of the file room.

Deep In. Deep Out. Deep In. Deep Out. Tashigi forced short and furious breath between her clenched teeth. She knew if Garp had his way, they’d be able to interrogate Baines until he cracked. But it was a big city, with lots of crime and lots of victims. Sometimes things had to be cut short.

She grabbed half of the files from the Baines case off Hina’s desk.

She’d asked for this, hadn’t she? Skip the people, all the paperwork.

******************************************

“You’re shitting me?” Tashigi winced at Smoker’s enraged yell. How could her superior shout loud enough to penetrate noise cancelling headphones? She’d put them back on because Fullbody and Jango had started yelling about Diana and her ‘girlfriend qualities’.

“Stop bitching, you brat.” Garp shouted back. Well, she knew why Luffy was so loud. “It’s happening. Now, tell Hina to wrap it up, it’s almost time to punch out, and we gotta get Baines back to Impel Down.”

Tashigi jumped in her seat as Smoker slammed Garp’s office door.

She avoided eye contact with Smoker as he stalked past. Pretended to be hyper focused on the pile of files in front of her.

They were the victim files and Tashigi had the terrible job of marking them as found or unfound. She had way too many unfound. Many of those unfound were only pictures they’d discovered when they’d collected Baines books. Few names, only height, weight, hair color, eye color, and date sent out from the warehouse.

She rubbed her forehead and took her glasses off.

“Tashigi-san.” She blinked up at the fuzzy pink outline approaching her. Hina.

“Hina-san.” Tashigi said and placed her glasses back on. Hina’s face was concerned and puzzled when Tashigi could see clearly. A thunderous Smoker stood at the entry of the hallway to interrogation. “What’s going on?”

“Hina doesn’t know what to make of this,” Hina said carefully, “but Baines has asked to speak with you.” Tashigi’s eyebrows crawled into her hair.

“What?” Her mouth gapped like a fish.

“The Sargent,” Hina side eyed Smoker grumpily over her shoulder, “burst in on Hina mid-interrogation and blurted out that Baines wouldn’t be coming back to visit. Hina was surprised when he suddenly asked for, and Hina is directly quoting here, ‘the bitch that stabbed me’.”

Tashigi grimaced slightly.

“Well,” she said after a few moments, “it’s the first thing he’s said in two and a half weeks. Might as well humor him.” Tashigi stood, adjusted Shigure at her belt and her glasses on her face, then tucked in her shirt.

She headed to interrogation. Why were her fingers shaking? She’d interviewed perps before. Then again, none of them had requested her specifically and that’d make anyone feel a little gross.

Baines sat chained to the metal table in interrogation room five.

“If it isn’t the bitch who stabbed me.” The purple-haired man snarled with a twisted grin. “Ya know, you put me in the hospital for a long time.”

“Three weeks and it was a clean cut.” Tashigi said tonelessly as she took the chair across from him. “I hit no major arteries, nor did I break your femur.” They were getting off topic. “Why did you want to speak with me, Mr. Baines.”

“Mr. Baines.” He snorted. “You’re a very polite cop. You must be the real good cop, not the garbage routine those other two were trying to pull on me earlier. Both better suited for bad cop.”

“You seem to know a lot about police officers, Mr. Baines.” Tashigi said probingly.

“I’m sure you lot already dug up all the information you could on my history.” The man said smarmily. “Put it in a nice, neat little file.”

“Get to the point, Mr. Baines.” Tashigi gritted.

“You lot have been asking me for two weeks what the hell else I’ve been into.” He stated roughly. “And as I said, my job never went beyond selling the girls to those who bought ‘em.”

“We both now that something more was going on than just sex trafficking.” Tashigi snapped. “Those encoded books of yours are for more than just selling people.”

“You don’t seem to be listening, Little Miss Detective.” Baines leaned toward her across the table. “ _my_ job never went beyond acquiring and selling. Stop trying to pin other garbage on me. I don’t need any more trouble.”

“More trouble that buying and selling people?”

“You can do more with a living person than just buying and selling them. I’d rather just go down for what I’m guilty of. Stop digging for things that aren’t there. Can I go now?”

There was a tap on the two-way glass.

Tashigi absentmindedly waved assent, still mulling over Baines’ words.

Koby entered interrogation five and uncuffed Baines from the table.

“Why’d you want to talk to me Mr. Baines?” Tashigi asked as Koby lead him out the door. “This was a conversation you could have with any of us.”

“They kept me in the same hospital room as Johnson.” Baines grimaced. “All the man did was bitch about you and Smoker. Called you hounds after a fox when you got your teeth in something. I figured you’re the more reasonable of the partnership, so consider this a weird sort of kindness: let it go.” He gave her a hard look.

“Okay, let’s go.” Koby said and hustled Baines out of the room.

Tashigi tapped her fingers on the metal table.

_My job never went beyond acquiring and selling_. Her brows scrunched.

_Stop trying to pin other garbage on me. I don’t need any more trouble._ One brow quirked.

_You can do more with a living person than just buying and selling them._ Tashigi pushed out of her chair and strode with a purpose towards her desk.

“What did that dirtbag want?” Smoker growled as he fell into step beside her.

“He wanted to call us off the hunt for the rest of the operation.”

“Like hell.” Smoker snapped and glared at the back of the retreating man. “I swear I’m going to get that man back in that room no matter what.”

“He’d be of no use.” Tashigi muttered as she pawed through her files until she found her yellow legal pad. “He wasn’t lying when he said he wasn’t involved with anything other than trafficking girls.”

Smoker stood silent as Tashigi began scratching out a list on the legal pad.

“There is a larger operation.” The man said slowly as he concluded what Tashigi had in interrogation five. “But Baines isn’t in charge.”

“Nor do I think he knows about the other bits of the operation.” Tashigi mumbled. “And he’s afraid of whoever is in charge. He seems to think that any discovery of operations outside of his section of the operation will come back on him.”

“Which means that the operation runs on a need to know basis.” Smoker conjectured. “And Baines is the only one who needed to know. That modus operandi might explain why we hadn’t heard a whisper of anything this big prior to Baines.”

“If we’re going to get Baines to give us anything, we need to bring him the right information.” Tashigi muttered as she finished writing.

“Whatcha got there?” He asked.

“A list of other things you can do with a living human body.” She said. “Take your pick.”

“Drug smuggling. Organ trade. Slave labor.” Smoker repeated. “These all make sense, why’d you add ‘Gun running’?”

“Remember that case two years ago? The farmer that got busted with his truck full of guns and we found that he’d been forced to do it because they had a bomb strapped to his chest.” Tashigi said. “It’s just a theory.”

“You got a lot of cases to look through for your theory.” Smoker grumbled.

“I know.” Tashigi sighed. “I’m going to need more whiteboards.”

“Don’t go too Crackers this time, woman.” The older man said around his cigars. “The last time you made a ‘Going Crackers’ web board, we had to sedate you.”

“I’ll try to reign myself in.” Tashigi said seriously.

“I’ll take Gun running for four hundred then.” Smoker said. “I’ll get Hina to take Slave labor. Go Crackers on Drug smuggling and Organ trade only.”

“Yes, sir.” Tashigi watched Smoker retreat to Hina’s desk.

Tashigi looked over the large pile of victim files on her desk. If she could tie some of these victims to the other branches of operation, then she’d know what reports to look out for. First thing first on her Going Crackers board: identify victim types.

“Tashigi-girl,” Tashigi looked up at the hovering Jango and Fullbody. “Let’s clock out.”

She looked back at the victim files.

“They can wait until tomorrow.” Fullbody said gently and lightly gripped Tashigi arm. The two men lifted her out of her chair.

“Someone has to find them.” She said tiredly.

“And it’ll be you, but tomorrow.”

Tashigi knew they were right. Yet as they dragged her out the precinct doors, Tashigi couldn’t help but feel like she was abandoning those women to the cold.

***********************************

Shigure wedged itself in the wood of the dojo wall as Tashigi was disarmed for, as Zoro pointed out, the twenty-third time that morning.

She hated weekends.

"What the fuck is going on with you, Four Eyes?" The one-eyed man snarled. "If you're not going to take this seriously then we don't have to fucking do it."

"I am taking this seriously, Roronoa." She snapped as she braced one foot on the wall to pull her beautiful Shigure from the slatted boards. Her poor sword probably hated her these days, getting all beaten up by that brute.

"Stop insulting me to your sword, ya friggin' geek." Came Zoro's amused and irritated huff over her shoulder.

Oh. She'd said that out loud. Tashigi hadn't really been sleeping lately. She'd been working on her Going Crackers board for the Baines case.

"Whatever." Tashigi puffed in embarrassment. "I am fighting seriously, you're the one who's not being serious."

"Are you shitting me?" Zoro growled and glared at Tashigi, who gulped slightly. "You've been an absolute space case for days, and I'm not taking this fucking seriously?"

"Fight me with all three swords."

"Hell no." He scoffed, twisted his wrist so Wado cut a high arch above his head and leveled the blade at Tashigi's scowling face. "You get all three swords when you earn all three swords. And ya earn all three swords when you fucking pay attention."

"Don't talk to me like a child, Roronoa." Tashigi shot back at him. "Maybe I'd pay more attention if you gave me the same amount of consideration you gave your other opponents."

"I'm talking to you like a child because you're fucking acting like one." Zoro snarled, a vein twitched in his forehead. "And, just so you know, crazy sword freak, I give you the same amount of consideration I give everyone else, which is fucking none." Savage smirk.

"Asshole." Tashigi shrieked and charged him.

Zoro parried her impulsive strike. He pushed Shigure away and swiped at her side with Wado.

Tashigi blocked and dodged under another strike. She slashed upwards.

They were a blur of slashes and snarls.

Tashigi focused all her pent-up rage and frustration into matching Zoro blow for blow. She channeled all her emotions into Shigure's graceful arch aimed at Zoro's head. Maybe if she took the other eye it'd teach him not to take her seriously.

Of course, it's not like landing a blow to Zoro was an especially easy thing to do. Not when the man was grinning like a damn madman every time he blocked. Tashigi was sure it was sleep deprivation that made her imagine he grinned wider when _she_ blocked one of his forceful strikes.

Tashigi grunted as Zoro pressed her backward with Wado.

Her back hit the wall as Zoro maintained the pressure.

Tashigi gripped Shigure with both hands as she tried to throw the larger man off.

Zoro smirked at her efforts and took one hand off Wado. Tashigi was about to yell at him when she realized he was reaching down next her. Zoro drew Sandai Kitetsu from its sheath and added the cursed blade to the pressure he was applying with Wado.

"You've earned it, Glasses."

"Shut up, Roronoa."

Tashigi ducked and rolled past Zoro's legs. She turned and stood as both Sandai and Wado came down on Shigure from above.

Teeth set against the strain, Tashigi fended off both swords. She sweated like an absolute pig, but that couldn't tamp down the exhilaration that ran through her with every strike and parry. She lived for fights like this.

She felt a savage smile twist her cheeks as she dodged and slashed.

Zoro's brow quirked minutely before he added more inhuman strength to his blows.

Tashigi hissed an oath as she stumbled backward. She planted her foot firmly before she could topple over herself. Strongly rooted Tashigi brought Shigure up to block and lock Wado and Sandai into place.

If Zoro moved the swords crossed in an X in front of her blade, Shigure would swing straight into his face. He'd dodge, but the man had never had to take a step back during one of their fights before. So, he pressed against her sword, trying to get her to crumple under the force.

Tashigi strained and bit her lip as she tried to maintain an equal pressure against the abnormally strong man. Her cheeks reddened from the effort and she struggled to maintain steady breathing.

"Whoa!" Tashigi's head jerked to the side at the awed, childish voice. The school children were back, eyes glittering in wonder.

Tashigi faltered.

Zoro wedged Sandai under her defense with a snicker and Shigure was once again jammed in the wall.

"Hey!" Tashigi protested as she shook her bruised wrist. "Zoro, that's not fair, I was distracted."

The man's green eyebrows jumped at the use of his first name. Tashigi flushed at her slip up. The fight had made her run hot.

"Distraction is a staple of battle, Glasses." Zoro said, amusement lacing his voice. "It was totally fair." He turned to greet his students as Tashigi huffed and went to retrieve her sword for the twenty-fourth time.

"Good morning, Miss Tashigi Glasses-san." The school kids piped up as Tashigi mingled with them to put her shoes on. They were a mix of nine, ten, and eight-year-olds.

"It’s Miss Tashigi or Tashigi-san, kids." She sighed good naturedly. "My name is not Glasses." She glared at Zoro. The man looked absolutely unapologetic.

"Then how come Master Zoro calls you Glasses?" A little girl with red pigtails asked, looking up at the older woman.

"'Cause Master Zoro is a rude man."

"Oi!" Zoro protested. "Don't brainwash the kids against me."

"Is it brainwashing or the truth?" Tashigi sassed back.

"You can't disrespect a man in his own dojo, woman."

"Huh? I thought this was Mr. Mihawk's dojo?"

"While he's away I'm in charge."

"Sure." Tashigi smirked up at the man as she stood, gym bag over her shoulder. "That's how it is."

"OH, I get it now." Zoro and Tashigi both turned to the little knowing voice that had spoken up. A blonde girl, the oldest of the bunch, looked incredibly pleased. "I know why Master Zoro calls Miss Tashigi Glasses." Her voice was very sage, and the kids crowded close to her. "My parents do the same thing. They call it a term of endearment."

Tashigi turned beet red.

The tips of Zoro's ears flushed.

"Now kids—" Tashigi started to stutter.

"What's that mean?" One of the younger boys asked, head cocked.

"It means that Master Zoro like-likes Miss Tashigi."

"Oi, brats, don't go making things up." The bridge of Zoro's nose was pink. Tashigi's entire chest had turned red at this point. "C'mere."

The kids scattered, giggling, throughout the room as Zoro stepped forward.

"Goodbye." Tashigi said, probably way too loud, as her brain caught up with her and Saint Tashigi demanded they leave for propriety sake.

She was halfway down the hall when Zoro called out to her.

"Oi, Glasses, wait."

It startled her so much that her left foot caught the back of her right foot and she tripped. Ugh. She was the human embodiment of awkwardness.

Succubus Tashigi helpfully suggested she fake a twisted ankle to get Zoro to carry her. Swordswoman Tashigi suggested seppuku as her enemy had witnessed her humiliation. Saint Tashigi nixed both suggestions and told her to just get up.

Thank you, Saint Tashigi, you've earned your canonization.

"And you were doing so well." Zoro laughed as he came down the hall to where Tashigi was dusting off her knees.

"If I go more than five minutes with wiping out, I lose my membership to the Association of Klutzes." Tashigi deadpanned.

Zoro smiled widely. The pleased buzz of pride that normally accompanied a compliment from Smoker, coursed through Tashigi’s chest. She’d made him smile, not smirk, a genuine smile.

"Why'd you ask me to wait?"

"Ah, right, _that_." Zoro scratched the back of his head. Tashigi would've thought he was nervous if she didn't know that nothing scared this man. "Are you ever gonna come back for dinner? Nami has been asking."

Ah, yes, her other preventive measure. She'd stopped having dinner with the Strawhats altogether once she got back to work. One, it was a professional distance, to prevent conflicts of interests. Two, she was trying NOT to jump the man next to her and watching him be all affectionate with his friends was a surprising turn on. Three, oh yeah, Tashigi was a coward.

"Probably not." Tashigi said with a shaky smile. "I've got like a ton of cases right now and oof, I'm just bushed from work."

The thin line of his mouth and eyebrows told Tashigi that he didn't believe her.

"So, you just go right to bed after work?"

"Uh huh."

"And those bags under your eyes are what? Decoration?"

"Uhhhh..." Tashigi was a terrible liar.

"Master Zoro." A voice whined from the classroom. "Ethan bit me."

"Fucking hells it’s like dealing with fifteen Luffys." Zoro muttered and rubbed his temple. "Suit yourself, Glasses. But I'm warning you, the more you try to avoid them, the more they force themselves on you." He turned back to his classroom. "Oi, brats. If yer gonna fight, use your bokken, not yer teeth."

Tashigi chewed her lip in the hallway. The Strawhats weren't going to do anything drastic, right? They didn't like her that much.

Right?

*************************

Papers were scattered across Tashigi's study. Several whiteboards were propped on stands around the room. The detective herself was stretched bodily across the desk.

She'd fallen asleep.

Tashigi had been sorting victims from the past year and placing them on a whiteboard that stretched the length of the room behind the desk, against the bookcases, by kidnap date. Something had changed in victimology in the past year, Tashigi couldn't figure out what yet. The other boards were filled with unsolved drug trafficking and organ trade cases.

Tashigi snored and drooled on a piece of paper under her cheek. She was making great progress.

Loud and excessive knocks suddenly carried through the apartment from the front door.

"Eh?" Tashigi mumbled bleary-eyed and propped herself up on her elbows. Paper stuck to her face and glasses tangled in black hair. "Who's that?"

The knocking continued, louder.

"I'm coming. I'm coming." Tashigi slurred as she stumbled off the desk. She wiped eye boogers from her eyes. "Must've ordered takeout." She yanked the door open.

It was not takeout.

"Hiya, Tashi!" Luffy grinned brightly, with a bunch of DVDs clutched in his arms, like the woman in front of him wasn't half awake, wearing dark blue boxers, and no bra. "We've come to visit." He shoved past her and settled himself on the couch like he'd done it before.

"You're not takeout." Tashigi mumbled numbly as Chopper and Usopp brushed past her, arms loaded with snacks.

"No, we're not." Nami laughed as she stepped through the door. "I love this shirt." She plucked the sleeves of Tashigi's pink shirt with a cat flipping the bird at a flock of birds. "Where'd you get it?"

"Loguetown thrift shop." Tashigi blinked rapidly, trying to get her bearings.

"Tashigi-chan," Sanji breezed in behind Nami, "you look adorable." He reached over Nami to poke one of Tashigi's uneven space buns.

"Don't grope her, Nosebleed-kun." Zoro snarled as he shoved Sanji out of the way. "Glasses." He pulled the sheet of paper off her cheek. "Taking a nap were ya?"

"Roronoa, close the door behind you."

"Yes, ma'am." He said sarcastically.

"I wasn't groping her, shitty swordsman."

"Tashigi," Chopper called from her bedroom, "where's your first aid kit?"

"Bathroom. Under the sink."

"Thanks."

"Whoa!" Usopp gapped from the entrance of her study. "This is a great crazy person room."

That snapped Tashigi from her stunned stupor.

"Hey! Usopp-san, get away from my Go Crackers boards." She demanded as she rounded the couch and pushed Usopp away from the study.

"Go Crackers?" The long-nosed man asked curiously as he plopped on the couch next to a bouncing Luffy.

"Yeah, cause when Koby first saw one of them he asked me if I'd gone crackers." Tashigi realized how absolutely nuts she sounded. Zoro drove it home by laughing uproariously as he glanced into the study.

"I always knew you had screws loose." He wheezed. "I'm going to go touch your swords."

"It’s an ongoing police investigation. Roronoa, don't you touch those swords." She followed him into her bedroom.

Chopper exited the bathroom and tackled her in a large hug.

"You have one of the neatest and most comprehensive first aid kits ever." He sobbed happily. "I take back every comparison I've ever made to Zoro."

"Er, thank you, Chopper-kun." She patted his head awkwardly. Zoro lifted one of the swords off the wall. It was the bone white one with mint green grip, silver hilt, and matte finished sheath with a billowing cloud pattern.

"How do you manage to find the most dangerous swords in a bunch?" Tashigi hissed, exasperated. "Roronoa, put Kuraudokattā down."

"Cloud Cutter, huh?" He unsheathed the blade and looked down the razor edge. "You keep it well maintained."

Tashigi vibrated a bit with pride. Chopper's hug now seemed to be keeping her from lashing out at Zoro.

"Tashigi-chan," Tashigi turned to find Sanji looking through her cupboards, "why do you have so many packages of instant noodles?"

"Because it’s easy." Tashigi shrugged and ran her fingers absent-mindedly through Chopper's curly brown hair. Zoro had taken another sword off the wall, a less dangerous but more unpredictable one with bright pink grip, gold hilt, and shiny magenta sheath with black accents. "Damudo no kaihō." She supplied as he opened his mouth.

"Liberation of the Damned? Strange sword for a cop to own." Zoro laughed as he placed the sword back on the wall.

"I don't name them. It was forged in prison to break out of prison. Are you gonna mess with all my swords?"

"Just those two, for now." He smirked and wandered out of her room. Chopper detached himself from Tashigi and followed.

Tashigi gritted her teeth and stomped after them.

"It might be easy, but it can't taste that good." Sanji called from the kitchen.

"It tastes fine, Sanji-san." Tashigi sighed as she placed her hands on the kitchen table. "Besides food is fuel, if you're picky about what you put in your body, your engine is going to die."

"How can a Sweet Mellorine say such a thing?" Sanji shouted, horrified.

"Tashi sounds like Zoro." Luffy laughed.

"Just when I got Chopper to lay off." Tashigi pinched her nose.

"I'm actually not against that comparison." Zoro cackled. Sanji threw a dishrag at him.

"Uncultured swine." Sanji seethed. "Not you Tashigi-chan, I'm sure you cook lovely meals."

"By fire department demand I cannot do more than boil water and make toast."

Sanji's mouth dropped open. Usopp, Luffy, and Zoro roared on the couch. Chopper huddled next to Nami in front of Tashigi's small collection of pictures.

"Impossible." Sanji breathed and fished a cigarette out of his breast pocket.

"By special dispensation I can bake muffins." Tashigi snatched the cigarette from Sanji's lips. "Smoker-san can't smoke in here, so you can't smoke in here." Sanji gapped like a fish.

"I think Sanji fell a little out of love with you." Usopp chuckled.

"I would never." Protested Sanji and picked up one of Tashigi's hands. "I could never not love you, Sweet Mellorine."

Tashigi rolled her eyes.

"Stop making her uncomfortable, Ero-cook."

"I am not—”

"Say Tashigi?" Nami interrupted the brewing argument. "Are these your parents?" She was standing at the bookshelf, where Tashigi had reserved one shelf for photos. She was pointing at Tashigi's parents' wedding photo.

"Huh? Yeah, their wedding photo."

"I wanna see." Luffy shouted and suddenly they were all clustered around her photos. Unbelievable, so nosy.

"Your mom is pretty, Tashigi." Chopper said sweetly.

"Your dad looks just like you." Usopp chuckled.

Tashigi wandered up to the back of the group. She hadn't really looked at her parents' photo in a long time, but she'd had it memorized. She used to sleep with it.

It was taken on the steps of Loguetown city hall. Her mother's hair was down, and her white summer dress hit her knees. A flower crown nestled in her locks. Her father wore a plain white button up shirt and khaki shorts.

"They look so happy." Nami whispered dreamily.

They were happy. Her father's nose pressed into her mother's hair, grinning like a schoolboy. Her mother's mouth wide and laughing.

"Yeah, they were." Tashigi said distractedly and rubbed the back of her neck. Then realized it had gotten incredibly quiet. They were all staring at her. She'd made it awkward. "Uh, so, why are you guys, um, here."

Luffy perked up. "It’s movie night!" He bounced over to the couch and held up his collection of DVDs.

"Technically," Usopp corrected plopping down on the loveseat, "on Saturdays we'd usually hit a double feature or go to Tra-guy's."

"Is that were Franky, Robin, Brook, and Jinbe are?" Tashigi questioned, she did not think she could fit all ten Strawhats in her apartment, especially given Brook's height and Franky's shoulders.

"Oh no," Nami added as she settled next to Luffy on the couch, "Brook and Jinbe go bowling with Shakky and Rayleigh on Saturdays, while Franky and Robin get the house to themselves."

"For their freaky, old people sexy time." Zoro said and parked himself on the couch.

"Don't say it like that, Marimo." Sanji muttered as he sat next to Usopp on the loveseat. "It’s Robin-chan's date night with that speedo wearing weirdo." He grimaced at the visual.

"It’s the truth."

"All very interesting pieces of information." Tashigi hummed. "But why are you here? At my apartment?"

"Law said he needed privacy, or he'd amputate Luffy's hands." Chopper explained as he wedged himself between Usopp and Sanji.

"I wouldn't be able to eat meat!" Luffy wailed, Nami patted his head soothingly. "Then Zoro said we should come bug you because you missed us."

Tashigi glared at Zoro. Of course, this was his fault. The man smiled innocently back.

"I thought it was a great idea, for once." Nami said. "So here we are."

"My ideas are always great, witch woman."

Tashigi gapped at all of them. Criminals on her furniture, planning to stay. She wouldn't be able to wrangle them out of her apartment.

"What movies did you bring?" She sighed.

Luffy excitedly patted the spot on the couch between him and Zoro. Tashigi reluctantly settled in while detangling her glasses from her hair.

"Are you familiar with The Pirates of the Grandline series?" He asked, eyes shining. Tashigi shook her head and put her glasses on her face. Her taste in movies were more of the period romance, war drama, and martial art variety. "Then you're in for a great time. Usopp, put it in."

"Yes, Captain." The long-nosed man grabbed the first movie from the rather large stack and knelt by Tashigi's DVD player.

"How many movies is this series?" Tashigi asked nervously as she eyed the pile.

"About eight in the Grandline series." Usopp pondered. "Four in the much better East Blue prequals." He raised his voice and glared at Luffy.

"Lies." Luffy argued. Usopp ignored him and continued.

"And four in each of the other Blue spin-off series."

"Twenty-four movies in all." Chopper said happily as he opened a bag of cheese puffs.

"And you have to watch them all at once." Luffy stated importantly.

"That's impossible, right?" Tashigi asked Nami around the still bouncing man.

"It’s usually an all weekend affair." Nami sighed. "Which is why we only have them once a month." She pulled Luffy's cheek and got him to sit still.

"First person usually passes out at movie five." Zoro said and stretched back.

"And is that you?" Tashigi snarked.

"Chopper usually, sugar crash." Chopper waved happily from the loveseat as the opening credits started to play.

"But not tonight?" Tashigi questioned as she settled back into the couch cushions.

"No. I think that might be you, Drooly Grasses." He poked her cheek. She ignored how warm and gentle his calloused finger was.

Tashigi frantically scrubbed dried drool off her face.

"In your dreams, Roronoa." She hissed.

"They're gonna be your dreams, Glasses."

*****************************

For once at 7am Tashigi wasn't awake. Normally she was either getting knocked to the mat by Zoro or, because Sundays were his day off at the dojo, chugging her twelfth cup of coffee because she hadn't gone to bed the night before.

Instead, she snored on her couch. It was an awkward position to sleep in. Legs slung over Zoro's lap; face pressed into his shoulder. Not how she'd fallen asleep, mind you, during the fifth movie as Zoro said but after Chopper for her pride. She'd gotten into this position because of the young black-haired man using her back as a pillow.

Luffy, to accommodate Nami who fell asleep against him during movie six, pushed Tashigi almost into Zoro's lap to give Nami enough space to stretch out. The green haired man, knowing the shrieking that'd ensue if the woman woke up in his lap, compromised with his black-haired boss. Tashigi half in his lap and Luffy using her as a pillow.

Little did either man know but Tashigi wouldn't have blamed Zoro. She was, with documentation by Isuka, a cuddler and tended to latch on to sources of heat in her sleep.

Tashigi snuffled against Zoro's shoulder, natural internal clock beginning to wake her up, and scooted closer to her heat source. She barely cracked her eyes open and looked around. She decided it was too cold and too early to get up and she pulled herself closer to her heat source.

Contrary to popular belief, Zoro couldn't sleep through anything. He just chose to sleep through most things. When Tashigi moved, he woke up.

The man glanced down at the woman who buried her face in his neck. He stiffened slightly as he made eye contact with her sleepy brown gaze, then the tension eased when she didn't freak out. He curled one hand, as his other arm was thrown across the top of the couch, around her ankles and slowly eased them off his lap.

Tashigi was displeased, her heat source was trying to leave. The moment her toes brushed the cool carpet and the heat source let go, Tashigi drew her legs back up. She wiggled her toes between the arm of the couch and a warm thigh.

"No." She whined sleepily. "It’s too cold."

"I'm going to quote that back to you when you yell at me later, Glasses." A rough voice said above her head.

Tashigi pulled her head back slightly and glanced up. Roronoa Zoro raised his eyebrows at her, as if questioning what she was about to do. Tashigi was no longer sleepy.

She became aware of a crick in her neck and a weight on her back.

"My back hurts." Tashigi said lamely, not willing to address that she'd managed to put herself in Zoro's lap.

"That'd be Luffy."

"Oh." Tashigi fidgeted with a loose strand of hair. "Is there any way he could move? My back is cramping?"

"Hmm. He's asleep and I'd rather not wake him." Zoro craned his neck over her head and examined the sleeping Luffy with Nami sprawled on top of him. "We'll both have to move."

Zoro brought his hand down from the back of the couch. He placed the back of it at the base of Tashigi's spine, in a small gap between her back and Luffy's. Zoro carefully dragged his hand up along Tashigi's spine until he reached Luffy's head and created a space between the two. With Luffy's head cradled in his palm Zoro gently pushed the man forward slightly.

"Alright, now climb into my lap."

Tashigi balked at the request. The dragging of his hand up her back already made heat curl in her lower abdomen, more contact would make it worse.

"It’s the only way, just do it." Zoro hissed.

Gingerly Tashigi eased herself into Zoro's lap. The man wrapped his free arm around her waist. Tashigi shivered at the contact.

"Still cold?" Zoro asked as he pulled her close to his chest, eyes trained on the back of Luffy's head.

"Yes." Tashigi lied.

"You can change soon, just give me one minute." The man began to stand and Tashigi flexed her core muscles to keep her knees raised at chest level. She gripped Zoro's bicep as he turned while holding her with one arm and delicately lowering Luffy to the cushions with another.

The black-haired young man only smacked his lips in his sleep, muttered something about meat, and drew Nami further into his chest.

Tashigi released a shaky breath as she unflexed her abdominal muscles and carefully reached her toes down to the carpet. Still cool. Once righted, Tashigi released her grip on Zoro's upper arm.

"You are freakishly strong." She whispered. "You can hold me with one arm."

"Give yourself some credit, Glasses." Zoro sighed. "You have some decent core muscles to hold yourself up in that position while I moved."

Tashigi flushed with pride. She liked it when her hard workouts were acknowledged. Then she realized there was still a warm weight around her waist: Zoro was still holding her.

"Um, Zoro? Your arm." Tashigi stuttered. The green haired man drew his arm back quickly.

"Sorry, Glasses." He muttered. "I know you don't like to be touched."

"What gave you that idea?" She asked and Roronoa Zoro fucking blushed. The morning sun shone clearly through her windows and there was no mistaking it as a trick of the light.

"Remember that sparing session where you overextended your knee and then freaked out when I moved you closer."

Oh, by the holy makers of meito, they were going to talk about it.

"Yes." Tashigi stuttered quietly and looked away to hide her own blush.

"I asked Chopper why you'd freak out like that, 'cause medically your knee is his area, and he said that you probably didn't like touching people and I overstepped." Zoro scratched the back of his head, not making eye contact.

"Oh? Oh, sweet boy." Tashigi sent a soft glance towards the loveseat where the little doctor slept. The innocent angel didn't even realize that he was way off mark and of course Zoro was too dense to have come on to her. Gods, she—

Tashigi did a double take on the loveseat and then slapped a hand over her mouth, stifling giggles. She slapped Zoro's shoulder repeatedly and pointed at the loveseat.

Chopper lay sandwiched between Sanji and Usopp. Both taller men had managed to stretch out on the couch. Usopp cradled Sanji's feet in one arm and Chopper's cherubic face in the other. Sanji had both arms around Usopp's ankles and his face pressed into the man's socks.

"Holy shit." Zoro cackled and Tashigi slapped a hand over his mouth to shush him. She picked her phone up from the coffee table and snapped a few pictures of the adorable scene. She took a few of Nami and Luffy cuddling too, to hold off the notorious orange haired bookie.

"Send me those." Zoro hissed in her ear. "I want to piss off Swirly Brows."

"You just live to torment people, don't you.”? Tashigi sighed as she headed into the kitchen. "Besides, I don't even have your number."

Her phone was plucked from her fingers and then returned with the contact, Greatest Swordsman, added.

Like hell. She changed it to Roronoa.

"Just him and you." The one-eyed swordsman chuckled as he slid into one of her kitchen chairs, adjusting his swords at his side.

"Aren't we lucky." Tashigi huffed as she grabbed her World's Best Subordinate mug and placed it under the coffee machine. "Coffee?"

"Nah, got OJ?"

"Probably."

She dug the orange juice out of the back of her fridge and poured him a glass. The silence between them was comfortable as Tashigi waited for her coffee to finish.

"Do you want cereal or something?" Tashigi asked as she poured a bit of chocolate milk in her coffee to sweeten it.

"I'll just wait for the Ero-cook to wake up." Zoro hummed as he finished the orange juice. "Besides, Luffy likes it when everyone eats breakfast together." Rolled his eyes.

"That’s cute."

"Well you are welcome to join."

"Oh, that's very generous, Roronoa, but—"

"Actually, " Zoro interrupted as he scratched his chin, "after you admitted to Dart Brow last night that you're legally only allowed to boil water, they're probably going to force you."

Tashigi groaned into her hands.

"I did warn you." The swordsman chuckled, then grew serious. "Listen, Tashigi."

She jumped at the use of her first name.

"I know you hate me and all and I overstepped the other day." Zoro rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "But could you stop punishing them? They really like hanging out with you. Come back to dinner." His good eye was clear and earnest.

Tashigi nodded stiffly, gripping her mug tightly. The corner of Zoro's mouth twitched.

"Good. Maybe they'll get off my back about scaring you off."

The silence was tense as Tashigi mulled over if she should say what she wanted to say.

"I don't hate you, Zoro." The green haired man looked up. "Maybe when I first met you, yes. But now," Tashigi took a deep breath, "you are one of the few people outside of the force I respect. " His eyes climbed into his hair. "Don't let that go to your head." She warned and he smirked. "As for the other day, when I freaked out, it’s not that I dislike touching people, as you saw earlier, I am something of a cuddler. I was just embarrassed to be caught in a potentially compromising position by a bunch of school children. You didn't overstep."

Tashigi pressed her lips to the rim of her cup, deciding that she'd covered all the bases. Zoro could move on guilt free and she could die grateful she hadn't kissed him that day.

"So, what you're saying is you didn't mind when I got closer to you?" Zoro said slowly, processing her words with his usual stoic expression.

"The opposite in fact." Tashigi scoffed into her mug.

She froze. Cursed her malfunctioning brain to mouth filter, she'd even had enough sleep too. She looked anywhere but Zoro.

"Oh really?" Zoro hummed and there was a sudden source of heat next her. Abnormal strength, abnormal speed, curse the man. "You enjoyed it, Glasses?" He leaned into her space and placed his empty glass in the sink behind her. Tashigi didn't need to see him to know he was smirking.

Tashigi shuddered as his breath ghosted her ear. She felt heat rising in her chest. She refused to make eye contact with Zoro as she bit her lip and scrambled for a lie.

She was saved from answering Zoro by shouting and thudding from the loveseat. The pair rushed over to see Usopp and Chopper on the floor and a retching Sanji on the couch.

"Usopp!" Sanji shouted as he scrubbed his face. "Your socks were in my face."

"That's no reason to push a man off a couch." Usopp yelled as he rubbed his elbow.

"Sanji, you pushed me too." Chopper admonished, eyes blazing, as he held his head.

"Sorry, Chopper, but I had to defend myself against filthy socks."

"I washed these yesterday."

"What's with all the yelling?" Nami raged as she towered above the arguing men. "Your racket woke me up."

"Nami-swan, you look absolutely ravishing this morning."

"Don't yell at me, I'm a victim too. He pushed me off the couch."

"Usopp, its technically a loveseat."

"Chopper, you were just as upset moments ago."

"I know but get your facts straight."

"I don't care what happened!" Nami screamed. "You woke me up. You woke Luff—"

All the Strawhats suddenly turned to their black-haired leader, all with a little fear in their eyes. Tashigi felt like she was missing something. The young man blinked bleary-eyed at his surroundings before his brown orbs settled on Sanji.

Luffy broke into a wide grin and opened his mouth real wide.

"Shit." Zoro muttered.

"SANJI!!!!!!!!!BREAKFAST!!!!!"

***************************

"Are you sure you're alright, Detective-san?"

"For the last time, Robin-san." Tashigi sighed good naturedly. "My hearing returned a while ago."

"Just checking." The older woman hummed. "You never know when you could spontaneously lose your hearing and have to live in a world without sound." She smiled at Tashigi.

"Er?" Tashigi stuttered, just a little unnerved by the woman's penchant for macabre statements.

"Robin-babe," Franky said on the archeologist's other side, "don't scare Tashigi-sis off right when we got her back." He winked conspiratorial at Tashigi.

"Whoops." Robin said mildly, still smiling. "I do apologize, Detective-san. I got a bit ahead of myself."

"Its fine really." Tashigi said quickly. "In fact, it reminded me of this war over in the West Blue where this general of a smaller kingdom didn't have enough men to go up against a bigger kingdom. So, he trained his soldiers to take a thin wooden rod to his enemies’ ears if they found them wounded on battlefields. I mean, you can't give orders if your soldiers can't hear, right?" Tashigi laughed awkwardly as both Franky and Robin stared at her.

"That is fascinating." Robin breathed as she stared at Tashigi. "Franky, did you hear that?"

"Super creepy, Tashigi-sis." The much larger blue haired man shivered and rubbed his ears. "Would not want that happening to me."

"I bet the evidence would still be on their bones." Robin mused.

"Bones?" Brook popped his head into the living room of the Thousand Sunny house. "Did someone call me?"

"No, Skel-bro." Franky laughed. “Robin was just being all archeological over here."

"Ah, carry on then." Brook made to leave then paused and turned to Tashigi. "Miss Tashigi, may I see your panties?"

"Ah, no, Brook-san, you may not." Tashigi tugged the hem of the short skirt Nami had forced her into.

"Hm. Worth a try." The very tall, incredibly old Rockstar left.

"You can't keep me from inspecting the structural integrity of your bookcases now." Robin said. "Not when you let those six sleep there." She gestured to four of the six stretched out on the living room floor, well three on the floor, Nami was curled in an armchair with a book on constellations.

Chopper and Luffy played video games. Zoro was asleep on a pile of bean bags. Usopp and Sanji had left with Jinbe to get supplies for dinner.

After her hearing had been temporarily lost by Luffy's shout for breakfast Tashigi had been dragged to Thousand Sunny house still in her pajamas. Instead of letting her return home, Nami had excitedly asked to dress her up.

Tashigi had been unable to refuse Nami's request. She found herself wearing a short black denim skirt, a tight red t-shirt covered in white daisies with a lettuce hem and sleeves, and platform sandals? Honestly Nami, Tashigi was one wrong move from a twisted ankle.

Which is why she'd spent most of the afternoon glued to the couch.

It wasn't a big deal. The group mostly re-watched the movies they'd fallen asleep during, in preparation for starting the other sixteen, which they had also done that afternoon. Tashigi wasn't going to lie, the series was good.

"We're back." Usopp called as he charged through the door. Sanji and Jinbe followed carefully behind.

"Took you long enough." Luffy shouted. "We have eight more movies to go. Hurry up!"

"Do you want meat or not, you human black hole?" Sanji yelled from the kitchen.

"Meat! Yes!"

"Then don't tell me to hurry up."

Usopp and Jinbe wandered into the living room. Tashigi could hear the faint notes of a violin as Brook warmed up to play for Sanji while he cooked. Usopp joined Chopper and Luffy's video game, while Jinbe took a seat on the couch next to her.

Tashigi tensed slightly. While once upon a time she and Jinbe could've been considered on the same side, when he was a Shichibukai, the man had long broke ties with the government before the disbandment of the Shichibukai system.

"Detective Tashigi." The large man began.

"Yes, Jinbe-san?"

"Usopp tells me you are looking into several unsolved drug smuggling and organ trade cases. You think several are connected, correct?" Jinbe raised a bushy eyebrow at her, waiting. Tashigi cursed Usopp for being smart and quick, he probably got a good look at her Gone Crackers boards.

"Yes." Tashigi stuttered. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, I can't help you on the organ ones, but I'm sure if you ask Mr. Trafalgar he'd know." Tashigi grimaced at the admittedly decent suggestion. "But there is one unsolved drug case I think you should look into." Tashigi listened to Jinbe's words eagerly. "A couple months after Hody Jones and his gang were arrested a new supplier tried to set up on Fishman Island. There were several overdoses before Fukaboshi and his brothers could arrest them. Much to their surprise, the dealers were a bunch of young women who claimed to be kidnapped and forced to sell drugs. The boys didn't believe them and kicked them off the island. Four days later they all turned up dead in the Redline River." Jinbe sighed and closed his eyes. "I'm not sure if it’s what you're looking for, but I'd be grateful if you looked into it anyway, to give Fukaboshi and his brothers peace of mind."

"I'll look into it, Jinbe-san." Tashigi said quickly. "It unfortunately fits the criteria I'm looking for perfectly."

"I'm glad I could help."

Tashigi drummed her fingers on her chin, an idea forming. She'd been trying to approach this from her usual perspective: paw through files, look at cases in other precincts. But these criminals weren't on any police radar.

They hadn't known Baines was taking girls until the change in victimology. They hadn't heard about the bodies because Fishman Island self-governed and self-policed. The file systems were separated.

These criminals were ghosts. They left no trail for police to follow. But they left a trail a criminal could follow.

Tashigi grimaced again at the implications of her idea. She was going to have to ask Trafalgar Law for help.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I live! Every time I think I going to write a few quick chapters I end up writing waaaaaay too much. If any of ya'll are fans of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, that's were I got the idea for Fullbody eating hard boiled eggs when he was broken up with; a Charles Boyle classic.  
> Actually, Brooklyn Nine-Nine inspired my take on the One Piece Marines relationships in this story. Tashigi is obviously a Santiago.  
> The scene with Usopp, Sanji, and Chopper on the loveseat was inspired by that picture of Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, and Taika Waititi from behind the scenes of Thor: Ragnarok, just because their goofy friendship reminds me of that picture every time.  
> Hope you enjoy!


	10. June II

"Briefing room now, brats." Garp hollered across the bullpen. Tashigi picked up her coffee and notepad. They'd officially closed the Baines sex trafficking case. Johnson, the little slug, would testify against him and the distributors for a spot in a lower security East Blue prison. The Distributors flipped on the people they sold to, but bringing charges against them was the DA's job. Time to get back to their usual cases.

She waved at Koby and Helmeppo standing at the back of the briefing room with the rest of the uniformed officers. Jango and Fullbody sat at the first table in the row closest to the door, while Hina and Smoker sat at the first table in the second row. There was a third chair at Hina and Smoker's table reserved for her.

Tsuru and Garp entered after her and stood at the front of the room. Garp for once behind the podium.

"Alright punks," Garp growled, "I don't like being up here and you don't like looking at me, so let's get to it." There were titters of laughter. "The Baines case is closed which means the A Team is back. B Team, you did great in the interim, but I'm sure you are all pleased to not deal with dead bodies anymore." There was a cheer from the back tables. "Pipe down, Lohank, or I'll make you sit in on an autopsy." Detective Lohank gagged and Tashigi snickered. "Tsuru, please pass out the cases."

"Fullbody, Jango, a cult has set up shop in the East warehouses." Tsuru croaked as she set down the thin case file between the men. "There are reports of members not being allowed to leave and now a body of a member has washed up near the compound. Check it out."

"Sweet, its creepy cult shenanigans." Jango crowed.

"And everybody is all good?" Garp questioned the two. "Nobody is going to cry and swallow eggs?"

"I've worked it out, sir." Fullbody assured him.

"Alright good. Oh and no joining this cult, ya hear?"

"It was one time." Jango protested. Tsuru waved her hand to silence him.

"Hina, the G-2 have requested you on a potential serial." Tsuru said and laid down a much thicker file in front of Hina. "It's got connections to a case you worked two years ago."

"Hina will do her best to represent the G-5 well." Hina said and opened. "Oh dear, Hina hated this one."

"I hope this helps you nail the bastard a second time around." Garp sighed and rubbed his jaw. "Damn tooth."

"I told you to go to the dentist." Tsuru muttered and paused. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." He barked. "Keep going."

"Smoker, Tashigi, just got a call about a body found in a Riverbridge home. The body was reportedly wearing a leather body suit."

"Gods damnit, not again." Smoker huffed as he accepted the almost empty file folder.

"I'm sure this won't be like the last one, sir." Tashigi assured her Sargent. Garp groaned again and rubbed his jaw.

"Garp-san, Hina really thinks you should see a dentist." Hina said, concern lacing her voice. Garp waved her off.

"Wasn't your last one an autoerotic asphyxiation?" Koby piped up.

"Ten-point word, Kobs." Fullbody commented.

"Yeah." Tashigi muttered as she looked over the transcript of the emergency call. "This one might be too. A dominatrix called it in."

"I wanna trade." Jango said immediately. Garp let out a pained growl.

"Oh, just go to the fucking dentist, old man." Smoker snapped.

"I can handle it myself." Garp snarled and whipped a set of pliers from his pocket.

"No no no no." Tashigi shouted in unison with the rest of the precinct as Garp stuck the pliers in his mouth and yanked the tooth out.

There was high pitched screaming, Helmeppo, and a thud, also Helmeppo.

Hina, disgusted, left the briefing room.

Smoker, swearing to end Garp, also left.

Jango and Fullbody, supporting each other and gagging, bolted.

Tashigi hauled a pale faced Koby to the men's room to throw up breakfast.

Tsuru put her head in her hands as Garp held the tooth out to her proudly.

Typical Monday in the G-5.

After making sure Koby and Helmeppo weren't too traumatized, Tashigi poked her head into Garp's office. The old man was sitting smugly at his desk, holding the tooth like a tiny trophy.

"Garp-san?"

"C'mon in, girlie."

"Are you really alright?"

"Ah, the dentist removed the tooth yesterday. I just like reminding you brats what I'm capable of, also I like seeing Helmeppo faint."

"Oh, sir." Tashigi huffed, exasperated.

"What'd you need, Tashigi?"

"I was wondering if you could request a case file from the Fish Man Island police. "

"Might take a couple days. What's the case?"

"Drug and murder case. Four women accused of selling drugs and kicked off the island, only to turn up in the river a couple days later."

"Doesn't sound that unusual."

"The women claimed to be kidnapped and forced to sell the drugs." Garp's eyebrows raised at the statement.

"You think it’s related to the Baines case."

"You said bring you evidence."

"So, I did." Garp sighed. "I'm friends with Neptune, I'll see if I can get it quicker than the usual channels."

"Thank you, Garp-san."

*****************************

"Last name: Alfonse, First name: Salazar, age 57. He has a wife and two sons who live in the home, no word on them or where they are, but then again he's probably supposed to be at work so they might be out of the home too. " Tashigi said as they parked in front of a nice house in Riverbridge. It was a large brick house with two car garage and a high stone wall surrounding the high end house. The entire Riverbridge area was made up of large suburban houses in an urban setting, only housing the wealthy business class that could afford it.

"Where does he work?" Smoker asked.

"BrightFox." Tashigi said as she checked the sparse information she’d gotten from Koby after asking him to look up the name. "It’s a financial consulting firm up by the Bridge district. He's the CEO.”

"Ah, fucking great, another wealthy dickhead." Smoker growled. “I wonder when we’ll see the army of lawyers.”

"Always a charmer, Sir.” Tashigi sighed as they entered the large home.

Dr. Fishbonen, the medical examiner, was already there.

Tashigi wrinkled her nose at the doorway of the longue. She’d never truly adjusted to seeing dead bodies, while she could be professional and keep her breakfast down, she’d rather not be close. Off to one side in the entry way was a tear streaked brunette wrapped in an emergency blanket. The dominatrix who called it in.

"Smoker, Tashigi, come in." Dr. Fishbonen called from inside the room. The medical examiner was large and egg shaped, with only a thin strip of dull brown hair on the crest of his head. He was chewing gum, but Tashigi knew in the autopsy room it’d be a fish bone.

The body of an overweight upper middle age man starfished on the expensive carpet. He was indeed dressed in a latex gimp suit.

"Morning Doc." Smoker sighed as he snapped on gloves and booties. Tashigi ungainly hopped after him doing the same. “Tell me now, is it another autoerotic asphyxiation?"

"It is not." Chuckled the tall and broad medical examiner as he leaned away from the body. "No ligature marks on the neck." With his gloved pinkie he pulled the suit away from the dead man's neck.

Tashigi thought something was odd with the suit. Dr. Fishbonen made to take his pinkie away but Tashigi stopped him with a light hand on his wrist.

"Stevie." She called and the dreadlocked CSI came over from taking pictures of underneath the windows.

"What's up?" The dark-skinned woman asked.

"Could you take a picture of his skin right here?" Tashigi asked politely.

"Got one of your Gitchee Feelings again, huh?" The CSI said good naturedly and snapped several photos.

"Always." Tashigi said and allowed Dr. Fishbonen to remove his pinkie.

"You gotta time of death yet?" Smoker asked as he looked around the small room.

"Tentative, and remember that word Smoker, tentative time of death is yesterday evening." Dr. Fishbonen stated.

"After or before 8pm?" Tashigi asked as she looked at the body. The man had mixed blond and grey hair. She leaned forward. His lips were blueish.

"After 8pm." Tashigi made to open her mouth again but Dr. Fishbonen beat her to it. "But before Midnight. I know how you work, Detective. " She smiled sheepishly.

"What can you tell me about the body right now." Smoker said as he crouched over the dead Mr. Alfonse. Tashigi glanced around the room, noticing a half drunk glass of amber liquid.

“I initially thought heart attack, given he is over 50.” Dr. Fishbonen stated. “But,” he pointed to the blue ring around the lips, “notice the blue line. That could be methemoglobinemia, when blood cells stop holding oxygen. It is a sign of nitroglycerin overdose. Nitroglycerin is a common heart medicine.”

“So, it’s an accidental overdose?” Tashigi questioned. Dr. Fishbonen shrugged.

“Stevie, what was that fun fact you told me earlier?” He called to the woman taking samples of dirt from the kitchen doorway.

“The amount of pills needed to overdose is about eight to ten.” Stevie replied.

“Too many to take accidentally.” Smoker grumbled. “Any way to tell for sure?”

"Not until I get him on my slab and out of this suit." Dr. Fishbonen said. "Can I take the body now?"

"Yeah." Smoker muttered then turned to Tashigi. “Bring me that glass.”

Tashigi grabbed the glass and gingerly brought it to her Sargent. The large white haired man took a sniff and jerked his head back.

“Bourbon.” He grumbled. “But strong enough to just barely mask the smell.” Tashigi accepted the glass back and sniffed herself. Nitroglycerin. “So, now it’s murder.”

“Let me make that call, Smoker.” Dr. Fishbonen huffed as the stretcher rolled in.

“Stevie,” Tashigi called the woman over, “take samples of the bourbon in the glass and bottle.” She indicated the bottle on the side table where the glass had been.

“Well,” Smoker sighed as the body was rolled away, “I’ll contact the family. See where they are.”

"I'll talk to the dominatrix." Tashigi said and followed Smoker out of the room.

The dominatrix, Madam Eliza as one of the uniforms told her, shivered despite being indoors.

"Good Morning, Madam Eliza." Tashigi said kindly. "My name is Detective Tashigi. I will be asking you some questions about what happened, that okay?"

"Madam Eliza? That's my work name, just call me Liz." The woman tittered nervously. "Sure, you can ask but I don't know what I can tell you. I walked in and the guy was dead."

"You walked in? No key?" Tashigi asked.

"The guy on the phone said that he was a new client light CP and OTK. That means corporal punishment and over-the-knee.” Liz clarified at Tashigi’s scrunched eyebrows. “He said the door would be unlocked and he'd be waiting." She sniffed deeply.

"Guy on the phone?" Tashigi raised her eyebrows.

"The club I work for does call outs." Liz coughed wetly. "When I got here and opened the door, I thought he was just playing so I slapped him with the crop. When he didn't move, I took off the mask and touched his face, it was cold, that's when I realized he was dead."

"He was already wearing the suit when you got here?" Tashigi asked and Liz nodded.

"During lots of home calls clients have their own gear and are already dressed by the time I arrive. It helps them get in the right mental state."

"And this was at like 10am? Little early for this kind of thing, isn't it?"

"I've had guys call me for a session at noon on their lunch break." Liz informed her. "I don't notice the time anymore."

"The number for the club you work at," Tashigi began, "could anyone find it, or do you have to be a member?"

"We have a website, but most of our clients are high end. Mostly from the business district up by the bridges, the club itself is on Divider Street, in the party district. So, I'd say you'd have to be pretty up there to know about us."

"And you've never seen the victim before today?"

"Never."

"And your car is the two door Cricket Coop parked in the street?"

Liz nodded.

"Thank you for your time, Liz, and we will contact you if we have any more questions. Here is my card if you think of anything else. You go get some sleep now." Tashigi said kindly. Liz nodded and accepted Tashigi's card before heading to her car.

Smoker turned up silently at her side and Tashigi jumped only slightly.

“She do it?” He asked with a raised brow. Tashigi shook her head.

“She was genuinely upset at discovering the dead body.” She sighed. “The family?”

“Extended weekend with the Nanny at the family vacation home in Titus.” Smoker huffed. “They’ll be back by tomorrow morning.”

“Now we wait.” Tashigi said and rubbed the back of her neck. “Does that mean you’re gonna make me sit in on the autopsy?”

“It builds character, girlie.”

“It builds my desire to skip lunch.”

*****************************

Tashigi flipped through the file of photos Stevie had given her while walking home from the bus stop. She’d asked Stevie to process the photos ASAP so she could look at the close ups of the latex gimp suit that had been bothering her. The CSI was more than happy to feed her Gitchee Feelings.

She twisted the close up of Mr. Alfonse’s neck under the latex suit upside down. Something was off, but she didn’t know what. Tashigi did not like not knowing. Being left out and having patience were her weakest points according to Isuka.

She weaved a little on the side walk, attributed to her distraction with the case and her attempts to dig an eggroll out of her Paper Dragon takeout bag. The bus trip from the precinct to her street was the perfect cooling time for her favorite takeout food.

“You are going to run someone over, Detective Shoi.” Tashigi’s eyes snapped up from her intense study to find a familiar blonde doctor in front of her.

“Doctor Kaya.” She exclaimed. She had a sudden flood of guilt, a default reaction, given she only saw the woman when she was admitted to the ER. “What brings you here?”

“Just call me Kaya, Detective Shoi, I am out of my coat.” The woman chuckled. “I’m here for dinner. Usopp started inviting me a couple weeks ago, saying that the flood gate were open since you’d come over.”

“Call me Tashigi, Kaya-san.” Tashigi chuckled in kind. “Well, I’m glad being kidnapped for company every night benefits someone.” She turned to walk down the street and Kaya matched her stride.

“Oh, I’m thankful they do it honestly.” Kaya said blushingly. “I was beginning to think you got injured so routinely because you didn’t have anything to do on the weekends.”

“Oh gods.” Tashigi laughed. “It wouldn’t be far off the mark, but unfortunately my frequent trips to the ER can only be attributed to my poor hand-eye coordination alone.”

Kaya laughed loudly as they stopped in front of the Thousand Sunny house.

“Are you going to come in?” Kaya asked as she caught her breath.

“Ah, no, not tonight.” Tashigi raised her takeout. “Gonna eat and work.” She flapped her folder of crime scene photos.

The door to Thousand Sunny house flew open and Usopp’s thick curly head poked out.

“Kaya!” He cried ecstatically. “I thought that was your laugh.” His eye focused on Tashigi. “And Tashigi! Hey, guys, Tashigi and Kaya are outside.”

“Oh dear.” Kaya whispered cheerfully. “You’ve been discovered.” Tashigi pouted.

“Don’t just hold the door like a fool.” Nami screamed from inside the house. “Invite them in.” Usopp turned back and beckoned them up with his hand.

Tashigi began backing away, holding up her takeout as explanation.

“Kaya, don’t let her escape.” Usopp laughed. Kaya looped her arm gently through Tashigi’s and dragged her up the front walk.

“Just humor them.” She giggled.

Tashigi groaned and let her head fall back in annoyance.

“Hey guys,” Usopp snatched the takeout from Tashigi’s hands as she was forced into the house, “Tashigi brought appetizers.”

“Shishishi,” Luffy popped out of nowhere and snatched the takeout from Usopp. “you’re the best Tashi.” He began pawing through the bag.

“Swear to the Holy Ronin, Strawhat, if you eat my eggrolls and I will arrest you.” Tashigi shouted as Luffy disappeared into the kitchen with her dinner. She followed him.

“Good Evening, Tashigi-chan.” Sanji cooed as he cooked.

“Yes, yes, you too, Sanji-san.” Tashigi said distractedly, intent on saving her eggrolls.

Luffy was gleefully passing out her side dishes while keeping her sweet and sour chicken for himself. Tashigi followed her side dishes, until she found her eggrolls placed in front of an empty chair between Zoro and Robin.

She made to grab them but a slender hand placed itself on the top of the box.

Tashigi pouted and turned to Robin.

“Sit and eat with us, Detective-san.” Robin smiled brightly. “Luffy has already made short work of your meal.” Side glance over her shoulder proved Robin’s words correct. Luffy patted his stomach while her large box of sweet and sour chicken sat empty.

“Fine.” Tashigi slapped her file down and plopped into the chair. “But I’m still going to work.” She opened her box of eggrolls and let out an affectionate sigh. Who needed a social life when eggrolls loved you?

Large, calloused fingers reached over and stole an eggroll.

“Roronoa.” Tashigi whined and glared at the chewing green-haired man.

“You still have three more.” The one-eyed man swallowed. “But ya might not if you keep pouting. Luffy’s got a surprisingly long reach.”

Tashigi gasped, scandalized at the prospect, and popped an eggroll in her mouth.

Zoro chuckled at her protectiveness of her food and slapped Luffy’s wandering hand away. This earned him an appreciative hum from the bespectacled detective. It might’ve been the eggrolls though.

She flipped open the file and resumed examining the picture that was bugging her. She rotated it left, then right, then upside down. Her glasses disappeared into her hair as she propped her chin on her hand and glared at the offending picture.

Tashigi put the picture down to grab another eggroll.

“May I look at that, Detective-san.” Robin asked politely.

Tashigi considered it. Robin was _allegedly_ a notorious former assassin and on several government watch lists for her Poneglyph reading skills. She was a highly intelligent woman with a wealth of knowledge in almost every subject.

She decided it was her best bet.

“Okay, but don’t take pictures or tell anyone, this is an ongoing investigation.” Tashigi said seriously and Robin picked up the photograph. “I know something is off, I just can’t tell what.” Tashigi pressed her palm to her forehead. “It’s going to bug me until I figure it out.”

“Is that why you don’t sleep, Glasses?” Zoro asked over her shoulder as he peeked at the other photos. “Fancy crime scene.”

“It’s up in the Riverbridge district.” Tashigi answered and pushed Zoro’s face out of her space. He returned to her shoulder and Tashigi gave up. The man always got excessively close to her and Tashigi was beginning to think he did it on purpose to drive her crazy.

“You are correct that something is off.” Robin mused as she rubbed her chin. She showed the picture to Tashigi. Zoro leaned forward with Tashigi. “This latex suit is new, you can tell by the shine on the latex. Judging by your other photos,” she pushed a couple photos of Mr. Alfonse’s body around on the table, “the victim is a larger man, yet there is no talcum powder residue on the body between the suit and skin.”

“Why is the talcum powder important?” Tashigi asked, brows furrowed.

“Putting on a new suit like this is like putting on a swimsuit that is two sizes too small and already wet.” Robin explained, “If he didn’t have talcum powder to ease the process, then someone would have had to help him put it on. Or,” Robin smiled a little morbidly, “someone put it on the dead body.”

The light bulb flicked on in Tashigi’s head.

“Fucking hells!” Tashigi exclaimed in frustration, drawing the attention of everyone. “That’s why it was off. Look. Look at this, it’s all bunched weirdly over one knee and under one armpit. All stretched out at the neck like someone had been yanking on it. There was no other S&M equipment in his house. Gods, I’m an idiot.” Tashigi pushed herself out of her chair. “It was probably bought today. I gotta go research sex shops in the area.”

“Sit down, you maniac.” Zoro chortled as he grabbed her wrist. The rest of the Strawhats looked dumbstruck at Tashigi outburst on S&M goods and sex shops. Robin’s eyebrows were raised in surprise, but her smile was proudly pleased. Zoro just looked gleefully amused.

“Why?” Tashigi asked obliviously, mind running a mile a minute on the case alone.

“So you can eat food, Detective-san.” Robin chuckled.

“Please, stay for dinner, Tashigi.” Nami moaned. “Don’t leave me alone with these boys. Kaya and Robin are not enough, you even the playing field.”

“But my case.” Tashigi stuttered as Zoro pulled her back into her chair.

“I’m sure your case can wait one dinner, Tashigi-chan.” Sanji said and placed a bowl of thick soup in front of her. She licked her lips. It did look good and they had eaten her original dinner.

“I guess it could wait.” She said slowly and picked up her spoon. “Soup doesn’t take long to eat.”

“Oh, this is only the first course, Tashigi-chan.”

“Damn you, Sanji-san.”

*************************************

“I,” Tashigi announced wearily as she stumbled into the bullpen, “have a lead.”

“Are you going to tell me or hold it hostage in exchange for coffee?” Smoker asked sarcastically as he stood with his own cup next to the precinct coffee machine.

“That second option is very appealing.” Tashigi yawned as she dumped her bag.

Smoker placed her office mug—violently pink with the words ‘I <3 Paperwork’ emblazoned on it—under the coffee machine.

“Tashigi-san, Hina wants you to tuck in your shirt.” The Lieutenant commanded as she approached with her own mug—Boss Bitch inscribed on it. Tashigi tucked in her lime green, butter yellow, and cerulean paisley patterned shirt.

“Spill, you coffee addicted brat.” Smoker ordered as he handed over the hot cup of liquid.

“Someone placed Alfonse Salazar in that latex gimp suit.” Tashigi said after her first sip.

“What makes you so sure?” Smoker asked.

“No talcum powder in the suit, no other S&M related paraphernalia in the house, and just the general awkward bunching of the suit on the body.” Tashigi listed the conclusions Robin had helped her come to the previous night.

“Solid theory.” Smoker mused. “Care to back it up?”

“Hina thinks Tashigi-san’s state of sleep deprivation is about to do just that.” Hina smiled at the younger woman’s disheveled appearance.

“Of the two sex shops in the area of the crime scene, only one carries that brand of gimp suits in double-XL that fits our victim.” Tashigi said excitedly. “Wanna go check it out?”

“The family just left the vacation home in Titus, so we have some time.” Smoker smirked. “Let’s go check the sex shop. I’ll drive.”

************************************

“Look, lady, I’m not going give you the names of people who bought XXL latex suits.” The owner of the sex shop, The House of Leather and Lace, was a skinny man with short salt and pepper hair and large black glasses.

“Why not?” Tashigi asked. She was only slightly red in the face from being surrounded by various sex related paraphernalia. She couldn’t tell if it was slight arousal or embarrassment.

“Because the police have a history of demonizing the sexually adventurous I’d like to keep my customers details private.” The owner scoffed. Tashigi conceded that he had a fair point.

“Look, Skippy,” Smoker snarled, appearing over Tashigi’s shoulder, she flinched slightly, “we can do this easy or my subordinate can take that whole rack of suits in to be finger printed and I can stand here with my badge on display till she gets back.” Smoker clipped his badge to his dress shirt pocket and placed his hands on his hips, facing the door.

A man walked into the shop, saw Smoker, and walked right back out. Tashigi would’ve too, honestly.

“Fine. Fine.” The owner huffed. “The last time we sold a suit of that size was yesterday morning, I was here. The guy was a medium at most.”

“Do you have his information?” Tashigi asked eagerly.

“No. He paid with cash.” The owner shook his head. Smoker growled over Tashigi’s head. “But he got the money from the ATM right there.”

Smoker and Tashigi crowded around the ATM pressed into the wall of The House of Leather and Lace. There was a camera above the screen.

“Tashigi,” Smoker hissed victoriously, “call the little tech brat. We have a heading.”

She dialed Koby immediately.

**********************************

“This, Mr. Myers,” Tashigi said as she pushed the ATM photo of himself towards Myers Rigsby, “is a picture of you from an ATM inside a fetish shop at about 9:30 the morning your boss was murdered, getting the cash to purchase the suit he was found in. You were not, as you claimed three minutes ago, out for a morning stroll before work.”

The well-dressed red-haired man chewed his lip nervously. He’d been bouncing his left leg since Smoker had hauled him into interrogation room three.

“Yeah, yeah. I guess I forgot I stopped in there on my walk.” He laughed uneasily.

“You’re head of acquisitions at BrightFox, correct?” Smoker asked gruffly. Myers nodded. “Puts you next in line as CEO if Mr. Alfonse were to kick the bucket. Seems like a great motive to me.”

“Whoa, whoa, what?” Myers exclaimed and looked panicked between Tashigi and Smoker. “Listen, no, okay.” He spread his hands out in front of him. “The night before on our usual 11pm conference call Salazar asked me to meet him at 9am yesterday to talk about work. He announced his retirement weeks ago and I was already picked as his successor. He wanted to give me pointers about taking over the seat. When I got there the front door was locked and he wouldn’t answer. So I went around back and the patio door was open. I went in and saw Salazar on the floor. I didn’t even know he was poisoned until I saw the news.”

Smoker and Tashigi shared an unconvinced look.

“Why did you buy the suit then?” Tashigi asked and gestured in confusion at the photos of Alfonse in the latex suit.

“Okay, this is going to sound bad.” Myers exhaled deeply. “But Salazar receives, er, would have received, a large retirement payout upon his exit from the company, about 125 million Beri. Now, that he is dead that money is going to his family. In his contract there is something one might consider a morality clause. When I found the body I figured I could save the company a 125 million Beri payout.”

Tashigi’s lips twisted in disgust.

“So you tampered with a crime scene to protect the company coffers?” Smoker growled and pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation.

“Yeah.” Myers made an expression of ‘Duh, dude. Totally’.

“Alright, Mr. Myers you are free to go.” Tashigi sighed and stood to open the interrogation room door.

“Wait? That’s it?” Myers questioned in uncertainty.

“Unless you want me to book you for obstruction of justice.” Tashigi questioned in displeasure. “Be grateful I’m too disgusted with you to even bother.”

Myers bolted out of the room.

Tashigi groaned and rolled her shoulders.

“Well, it was a good lead.” Smoker grumped. “We can now rule out bondage circles as a viable pool of suspects.”

“I feel like we just wasted two hours on a stale ham sandwich of a man.” Tashigi muttered into her hands.

“Buck up, Buttercup.” Smoker said as he checked his phone. “I had Helmeppo wait at the house until the Alfonses came home. He just texted.”

“Off we go.” Tashigi said tiredly.

*************************

“Salazar was a very powerful man. He made a lot of enemies at work.” Alfonse Nicoleta twittered wetly as she dabbed her red rimmed eyes. She was a tiny woman in her early forties with powder blue hair in drooping ringlets. Tashigi noticed that the woman picked nervously at her nails and lacy shirt cuffs.

Was it guilt or general unease around cops?

Tashigi was always tasked with interviewing bereaved family members or suspects you don’t want to know were suspects. Smoker was rather a brutal interviewer, straightforward questions and no punches pulled. It took longer because the interviewees kept crying. Tashigi was a bit kinder.

Smoker stalked around the room like a caged animal. He watched every movement of the interviewee and the surrounding family members. He picked up more that way. His eyes were currently trained suspiciously on the pastel purple-haired nanny, Kestrel Tilly, and the two boys: Alfonse Graves, seventeen, and Alfonse Dane, seven.

From Tashigi’s rudimentary search of the family’s personal information unearthed by Koby, Graves was the son of Salazar’s first wife—who died in a car crash when he was eight—and Dane was Nicoleta’s son. His robin’s egg blue hair being the greatest indicator.

The three she wasn’t interviewing looked relatively distraught. Miss. Kestrel patted Graves’ back repeatedly, while wiping tears from Dane’s eyes with a hankie. Dane was sobbing quietly, while Graves sat stiff as a statue, mouth drawn firm. Tashigi speculated he was trying to keep a brave face for his brother.

Tashigi turned back to the fidgeting Nicoleta.

“May I ask your whereabouts around 11:30pm the night of the murder?” Tashigi questioned. “Just for timeline sake.”

“Um, well,” Nicoleta gulped. “I was in my rooms. Tilly was out in the guest house and the boys were watching TV in their room.” Tashigi’s eyes glanced at the trio on the other couch. She noticed Graves blond brows squish together briefly.

She was going to question the boys separately.

“And you can’t think of anything else leading up to the day of the murder?” She asked with a stiff smile.

“Oh, no, not really. It was all normal.” Nicoleta said distractedly. Tashigi was beginning to realize Nicoleta didn’t notice a lot of things.

“Tashigi,” Smoker said roughly from behind the couch, “Could I speak with you outside?” He turned and vanished out the front door.

“Excuse me.” Tashigi said politely to the seated family.

Smoker was on the phone when Tashigi stepped outside. She waited, perplexed, until he finished.

“Sir?” She asked, eyebrow cocked.

“The nanny, Kestrel Tilly, she’s familiar to me.” Smoker said in a low tone, one eye on the open front door. “I’m getting Koby to confirm, but I think she was involved in a case in the West Blue twenty years ago.”

He paced for a few moments before his phone dinged.

“I knew it.” He hissed victoriously. Tashigi peaked over his shoulder. “Kestrel Tilly, originally Waverly Tamera, was brought up on charges for the murder of her father when she was sixteen but later acquitted after not enough evidence was produced for her guilt.” The man frowned at his phone. “It says her father was killed be nitroglycerin poisoning.”

“That is too much of a coincidence.” Tashigi muttered. “How should we go about bringing her in?”

“I say we just go back in and—” Smoker’s mouth snapped shut and glowered over Tashigi’s shoulder.

The three family members and Kestrel Tilly stood on the front step.

“Are you done asking questions?” Nicoleta tittered nervously. “The boys are emotionally drained and I need to plan Salazar’s memorial. Miss. Kestrel needs to go home as well.”

“Perfect timing.” Smoker muttered out of the side of his mouth. “Yes, we’re done. In fact, we’ll take Miss. Kestrel home.” The lilac haired woman smiled uncertainly at Smoker’s suggestion, but nodded.

“I feel so bad that we’re taking her to the precinct first.” Tashigi mumbled as she rubbed her forehead.

***********************************

“This is ridiculous.” Kestrel Tilly sighed composedly in interrogation room three. “I don’t know why you are dredging up my exceedingly painful past at this moment.” Tashigi flinched in guilt but kept her mouth firm and gaze even. “I did not kill my father.”

“But you have to admit,” Smoker said sternly, “the coincidences are rather unsettling.”

“And that’s all they are.” Tilly said strongly. “Coincidences. I had no reason to kill Mr. Alfonse. I barely interacted with the man, everything was through Mrs. Alfonse until I was settled in, then I was free to do as I please. As for when I was sixteen, my father was an abusive and cruel man, so I didn’t sob and wail like most teenage girls would, that apparently was grounds to suspect me of murder.”

“You have to admit, Miss. Kestrel,” Tashigi said slowly, not wishing to anger the already on edge woman, “an outside killer’s decision to use nitroglycerin to murder a man while you are present in the home is rather a stretch.”

“I don’t know.” Tilly tossed her arms up in exasperation. “Perhaps I’m being framed. I mean you guys found out, who says someone else didn’t? How did you find out?” She had a desperately confused look on her face. “I dye my hair and got plastic surgery.”

“It’s your eyes.” Smoker said nonchalantly. “We really can’t change our eyes.” He waved two fingers in front of his own eyes. “Besides you looked at me the same way you looked at police twenty years ago.”

Tashigi and Tilly both gapped at Smoker. The man had numerous hidden talents.

“If you are being framed for murder,” Tashigi recovered her shock quickly, “then have you noticed anything odd or strange around you? Someone breaking into your apartment, perhaps?”

“Not that I can…” Tilly started while chewing her lip in thought. “Oh! A couple weeks ago I noticed the same beige car following me when I was out with the boys. I took a picture of the license plate after the first couple of times. I haven’t seen it lately though.” She pulled out her phone and scrolled through pictures until she pulled up a grainy picture of a license plate.

Tashigi jotted down the letters: GHB 6549.

“Well look into this.” Smoker growled. “But it doesn’t remove you from the top suspect spot.” Tilly rolled her eyes and shook her head.

“Either way,” Tilly huffed, “if you had actual evidence to tie me to the crime, you would have arrested me at the house. So, may I leave?” She looked at Tashigi, who looked at Smoker, who waved Tilly reluctantly towards the door.

The sat in silence for a few moments.

“Why do I feel like we let the killer walk out that door?” Smoker grumbled.

“I don’t know sir.” Tashigi said and tapped her chin with her notepad. “It wouldn’t be very smart of her to kill someone the same way she’d killed her father. Especially considering how highly publicized the case was and how guilty everyone thinks she still is.”

“What ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Smoker huffed. “I think she’s guilty.”

“I’ll get Koby to run the plate anyway.” Tashigi sighed with a shake of her head.

She strolled out into the bullpen, intent on the pink haired tech genius talking to Helmeppo by the microwave.

“Ah, girlie.” Tashigi turned and craned her neck to look up at Garp. “I got a gift for you.” He held out a thick dark blue file with the Fish Man Island Police Logo stamped on the front. “Your drug and murder case. Also the boys over on Fish Man would be immensely grateful if you popped over and talked to them about the case. Apparently they’d been waiting for someone to contact them after ‘their old friend Jinbe-san said someone would look into it for them, as a favor’.” Garp gave her a significant and chastising look. Tashigi blushed.

“I swear they ambushed me, Garp-san.” She stuttered in explanation but the older man waved her off.

“I’m familiar with my grandson’s ways.” He barked a laugh. “Taught many of them to him myself. Just don’t make it a habit.”

Tashigi thought back to how easily she forked over the crime scene photos to Robin and how she had to soon ask Trafalgar Law for help.

“Never again, sir.” She chuckled nervously. “Well, I gotta talk to Koby about a license plate.” She bolted ashamedly away from her work grandfather figure.

**********************************

Tashigi had never attended a Strawhat party.

That was a lie. She had attended a Strawhat party, at Punk Hazard Chemical Plant with Smoker and most of the G-5 uniformed officers.

What she hadn’t done was attend a Strawhat party on her own street.

Most of the times, when she heard the telltale signs of a party on her street from the bus stop, she’d just shuffle past her brightly lit and noisy street. Go down the street behind her house and enter through the side gate. A sleeping pill or sound canceling headphones and she’d be out without a care in the world. If she’d been working after hours at home, well sound canceling headphones could play music too.

She’d never called the police for one reason: she didn’t want her colleagues to know where she lived. Why the men of the G-5 revered her so much, she did not know, but she’d just barely managed to get them to stop leaving gifts at her desk—still a struggle on Valentine’s Day, Christmas, and her birthday; she literally had to set a bunch of roses on fire to make her point. She didn’t want chancing reporting her neighbors for excessive noise to somehow end with her receiving well-meaning, but deeply unwanted gifts on her doorstep.

Once she discovered in was the Strawhats, sheer embarrassment kept her quiet. Then again, she’d been out of town or on night shift for most of their recent ones.

Tashigi blew anxious air out of her puffed cheeks as she fidgeted with her frayed shorts at the foot of her apartment stairs.

Now she had to brave one to talk to one of her least favorite people: Trafalgar Law.

She’d taken her usual avoid-the-party-route to get home. Then changed from her black slacks and paisley dress shirt to a pair of ragged jean shorts and plain black t-shirt. She toed her slides in the dirt at the base of her steps and hoped that wearing her hair in her usual messy work bun was ‘party acceptable’. Shigure was left in her apartment as she was afraid that the presence of her sword could be construed as a ‘un-party acceptable’.

Succubus Tashigi called her an unfun coward and that it was _just a party_.

Saint Tashigi pointed out that saying such things was like comparing Smoker’s injuries from Doflamingo to _just a flesh wound_.

Swordswoman Tashigi asked if they could just fight Trafalgar for the information instead of asking.

That last suggestion was immediately shot down.

Tashigi inhaled deeply and exhaled steadily out her mouth. She could do this. She was a big girl, who put her bra on one boob at a time just like everyone else. She could ask Trafalgar Law for help.

Justice over self.

She stepped out of the shadow of her house.

With an awkward shuffle, Tashigi walked out onto the vibrant street.

She dodged already drunk revelers as she carefully tried to discern where the infamous ‘Surgeon of Death’ might be amongst the milling crowd. Tashigi saw his familiar white hat with the spotted pattern along the bottom and bill. He sat in a circle of couches that somehow managed to make their way into the middle of the street.

Law lounged on a yellow couch with three other men that Tashigi had come to understand were his gang mates: Bepo, Penguin, and Shachi, if she recalled the files correctly. Scattered across the other couches were members of the Strawhats, the Kid gang, and members of the self-described ‘Strawhat street fleet’.

Tashigi gnawed at the inside of her cheek. She hadn’t expected there to be so many people. She’d been hopping to talk to Trafalgar without accusatory eyes drilling into her back or having nosy ears craning into her space.

“You can do this.” Tashigi whispered to herself as she flexed her hands at her side. “Think of it like asking an outside consultant for their opinion. Yeah.” Tashigi took a tentative step forward. Law turned innocuously in her direction, to talk to an irate Eustass Kid, and Tashigi wheeled around.

She couldn’t do it.

Tashigi rubbed her eyes under her glasses and glanced around the crowded street. Party goers walked around with cups, bottles, and cans of alcohol. She really shouldn’t because she technically considered herself on the clock when working a case in any capacity. But she could probably use liquid courage.

Tashigi wandered in search of the drinks table.

It was not just a drinks table. It was a fully stocked bar with a back set up in front of Thousand Sunny house. Sanji and Franky rushed back and forth behind the pop-up bar. Sanji appeared to be cooking on a makeshift grill and Franky was spinning bottles and pouring booze.

A crowd ebbed and flowed around the makeshift bar. Tashigi wasn’t too excited to try and get through that for one drink.

“Tashigi-chan.” Sanji called as Tashigi turned to leave. A cigarette dangled from his grinning mouth as he waved Tashigi over to the side of the bar where there were no people.

“Sanji-san.” Tashigi said with a slight smile. “I didn’t expect you to be working your own party.” He looked really busy.

“Ahh, its what I enjoy doing.” Sanji said happily. “If I was just lounging around I wouldn’t be having a good time. Now, what can I get you?”

“I just wanted a drink.” Tashigi said quickly and side eyed the crowd of people Sanji was ignoring. “And I don’t want to cut the line.”

“Ah, but you’re a special guest, Tashigi-chan.” Sanji cooed and turned to Franky. “Speedo Freak, make Tashigi-chan a drink.”

“I’m a little busy, Sanji-bro.” The cyan-haired man said in a rush. “But Tashigi-sis is more than welcome to come back here and make one for herself.”

“Are you sure, Franky-san?” Tashigi stuttered. “I feel like that’s cutting the line.”

“I’m the bartender, what I say goes. So you can make yourself a drink.” Franky laughed loudly. “My bar, my rules.”

“Okay.” Tashigi said nervously as Sanji waved her behind the bar.

“Mix-ins are in the fridge with mini bottles of booze.” Franky told her as she squeezed behind him.

Tashigi crouched down to the mini fridge and opened it.

She grabbed an individual bottle of orange juice and a mini bottle of vodka.

Tashigi grabbed a tall glass from the shelf on the back of the bar. She emptied the mini vodka into the glass and then the OJ. A metal straw from the container next to Franky’s station and Tashigi was on her way out, while she stirred her drink.

Someone jostled her shoulder as she exited behind the bar.

“Oops, I’m sorry.” She said, eyes cast away from the person nonconfrontationally, trying to keep her drink steady.

“Hey, where are you going?” A slurred voice said accusingly. Tashigi looked up to see a nondescript young man with slightly unfocused eyes glaring at the can clasped in both her hands. “Make me a drink.”

“Oh, um.” Tashigi glanced at the bust Franky and the bar she’d just left. “I’m sorry. I’m not working the bar. Maybe I can get Franky-san to—”

“Ugh.” The man groaned and cutting her off. “Stop being difficult and make me a drink.”

Tashigi gapped in awe. The nerve of this man. She really didn’t want to make him a drink, but people were already staring and Tashigi hated confrontation more that entitled jackasses. Plus she was too tired to throw down at that moment.

With a weary sigh Tashigi made to turn around and return behind the bar.

“Finally.” The man huffed like Tashigi had been the most difficult person ever. “I’d like a—”

“Fuck off.” Roronoa Zoro’s familiar voice interrupted with a grumble from her side. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and dragged her away from the side of the bar. “You can wait for Franky like everyone else.” He glared at the brown-haired man. The young man made to argue, then his eyes widened in fear as he realized who was telling him to fuck off.

Tashigi scowled as she watched the young man scamper away. She would’ve had to shove Shigure up under the man’s chin to get that kind of reaction. Zoro could do it with mere words and a glare.

“You didn’t need to do that, Zoro.” Tashigi grumped as she turned away from the green-haired man and sipped her drink through the straw.

“Normally I would have let you be a nice girl.” The man said with a shrug and took a swig from his rather large bottle. Tashigi squinted at the bottle: rum. “But that guy did deserve it.” He rested one hand on his swords. Of course, his swords totally ‘party acceptable’.

Tashigi blushed and looked away, taking another sip of her Screwdriver.

“Why were you so passive anyway?” Zoro grunted as they weaved through the people. “It’s not like you.”

“You don’t know that, Roronoa.” Tashigi scoffed and moved closer to him as a large group of people traversed by her right side.

“Sure I do.” Zoro said simply and reached his arm around her to settle his wrist languidly on her right shoulder. Tashigi pulled her shoulder blades tight at the sudden contact. He did not remove his arm after the group had passed. “You yell at me and others all the time.”

“That’s different.” She muttered as she realized where exactly she and Zoro were wandering. The circle of couches, with Trafalgar Law. “Yelling at strangers for no reason is dangerous.”

“How?” Zoro chuckled. “If anything, it’s more dangerous to yell at me”

“Threatening me now, Roronoa?” Tashigi huffed. “And here I thought getting my ass kicked every morning was threat enough.” Tashigi made to duck away from him. Explaining herself to this man was useless, he wouldn’t understand.

“No. No.” Zoro said sternly and turned Tashigi toward him with the barest press of his wrist. Tashigi stumbled slightly into the larger man, she put one hand on his chest to push away, but he held her almost lazily in place. “You are not running away now. I’m not a mind reader, so explain yourself. Why were you being so passive?” Zoro’s question ghosted Tashigi’s forehead.

“Why do you insist on being so close?” Tashigi grumped as she pressed her straw to her lips. They’d stopped walking, letting the crowd flow around them.

“You only ever talk when I’m this close.” Zoro smirked. “I’ve gotten some very interesting things out of you this way.”

“Sweet Meito.” Tashigi groaned. She needed an intervention. This man was going to drive her to an early grave.

“Tell me why, Glasses.” He hummed as he took another sip of rum.

“Have you ever considered that I am the virtual ‘odd man out’ on this street, Roronoa?” Tashigi hissed in frustration. “I am a cop on a street full of gangsters, with whom I have a strange and tentative relationship at best. I would rather not overstep my bounds over nothing when I have no one to watch my back. Look at this street, right now it is filled with more gangsters than I’ve seen in three years. My safety hinges on the fact that I am polite and accommodating. Do you know why it’s different for you and the rest of the other Strawhats? Because after years of flipping through your files and encountering you in the field I know for certainty that no one would slit my throat if I called you a jerk.”

She pushed forcefully away from his chest and he let her go. Frown laced his features.

Tashigi took a deep and calming breath as she brushed her shirt free of invisible particle.

“What makes you think no one has your back here?” Zoro asked. He seemed upset at the idea, at least judging by the deep lines creasing his face.

“What have I ever done to earn such a thing?” Tashigi asked bluntly. It had been made very clear to her throughout the police academy that protection from your peers was earned through your actions. Looking through her rolodex of memories she had no recollection about doing anything the Strawhats knew about that would warrant having her back.

“We’re your friends, Glasses.” Zoro snarled. “Thought that’d be reason enough.”

Tashigi flinched at how chastising he sounded. She pressed her lips together.

“I was not aware you considered me a friend.” She said stiffly and quietly. “I will take that into consideration in the future.”

She wanted to be done with the conversation, as it was perhaps going to make her cry, and she didn’t want to look at any of the Strawhats. She wanted to do what she came to do and hide in her apartment until she came to terms with the fact that the Strawhats considered her a friend.

Tashigi made her escape into the circle of couches. Relieved that a free spot had opened next to Trafalgar Law. Without being too awkward about it, Tashigi parked herself in the open seat.

No one seemed to notice her sudden presence, save for the man she decided to sit next to.

“Detective-ya.” Law said slowly. “Strange to see you here.”

“Yes, well, Trafalgar, I decided to see what all the noise was about.” She coughed awkwardly. “How is your evening?”

“Loud and annoying.” Law said and eyed her suspiciously.

“Oh, dear, I am sorry to hear about that.” Tashigi said with sincerity. If Law was annoyed then her chances of getting help dropped rather low.

“Hmm.” Law made to turn away from her, then paused, smirked and turned himself fully towards her. Tashigi was rather surprised at the change in attitude. “Why are you talking to me, Detective-ya?”

“Heh. Well,” Tashigi scrubbed the back of her head sheepishly, “I was wonder if I could ask for your professional assistance?” Law raised an eyebrow.

“I am a professional in many fields, Detective-ya, you’ll have to specify.” Law said almost playfully.

“I am investigating, off the record for the time being, several unsolved cases involving the organ trade.” Law rolled his eyes and frowned. “I am not accusing you of any involvement, but if you know of any cases involving dead young women with their organs removed that might’ve escaped the notice of the police. I would really—” Tashigi stopped talking. Law was holding a hand in front of her face, wordlessly telling her to stop.

“I,” Law said shortly, “am not going to that, Detective-ya.”

“What? Why not?.” Tashigi asked incredulously.

“A lot of things escape the notice of the police, Detective-ya.” Law rebuked. “Many of the people in my previous line of work got away with what they did because the police were woefully incompetent and didn’t pay attention to anyone with a net worth under several thousand Beri. Your little, I-have-free-time-so-I’m-going-to-look-into-cold-cases, decision is a whim that you will eventually drop when something juicier comes along. Why would I waste my time looking into something you aren’t going to care about in a few days?”

“That’s not true.” Tashigi protested, but Law shook his head.

“The police force leaves more victims in its wake than the criminals they try to arrest. Mostly because of their blind pursuit of the ‘real enemies’ which are the gangsters like me that you hate so much, Detective-ya. If you are serious about these cases you want me to find for you, then you are going to have to prove to me you are serious about helping the victims.” Law’s tone cut her pride as a detective. He made excellent points and she hated it.

“How can I prove to you I’m serious about my interest?” Tashigi asked shakily. She was rather fragile these days. It was a horrible feeling. She wanted to return to the comfort of her precinct and her coworkers, who she knew tried their best to benefit the citizens of the city. But that didn’t discount the truth in Law’s words.

“You can’t, Detective-ya.” Law said bluntly. Tashigi flinched. “I already know how you and Smoker operate. It does not make me eager to assist you. I ask that you do not push the matter.”

Tashigi nodded numbly and lifted her drink to her lips, sucking down the last of her Screwdriver. The party had rather dulled to her. She didn’t want to be around people. She’d put her foot in her mouth with Zoro. Law had refused to help her. She was embarrassed about not considering the Strawhats friends.

Law had turned to his large friend Bepo and Tashigi was alone at the end of a yellow couch. She hoped she didn’t look pathetic.

Tashigi pushed herself of the couch and marched back toward her apartment. If she was going to be a mopey molly she’d rather just work through it in her dark apartment.

Whether someone called after her, she didn’t know. It could have been her imagination or mishearing, Tashigi kept walking anyway.

She may have slammed her apartment door.

Deep In. Deep Out. Deep In. Deep Out. Tashigi repeated mentally as ragged breath heaved out of her and she trembled on her threshold. She sniffed a little and rubbed her eyes. Deep In. Deep Out.

However, her breath couldn’t be calmed.

Work. Work. She had to work.

Tashigi snuffled as she flicked on the lights to her study. The Fish Man Island case file was spread out on her desk, she may have looked over it before leaving for the party for confidence reasons. She decided that looking over the case would be a better use of her time than feeling sorry for herself.

She glanced at her finished victim board behind her chair as she sat down. She’d managed to get every photo found in Baines’ office onto the board with kidnap dates. The furthest back it went was four years ago, but there was a significant uptick three years ago—right around the time Dolflamingo got out of the human trade and into Smile, leaving a large gap in the supply of people to other people. There was another significant uptick one year ago, which is around the time reports of missing women came into the G-5.

Ah, yes, the victimology change she couldn’t figure out. Gods, Tashigi felt as useless of a detective that Law claimed she was—

Tashigi sat forward sharply.

 _Many of the people in my previous line of work got away with what they did because the police were woefully incompetent and didn’t pay attention to anyone with a net worth under several thousand Beri._ Law had said that and he was right. The victimology change wasn’t physical or by territory, it was socioeconomic. The other victims hadn’t been reported missing because there had been no one to report them.

Tashigi pressed a hand to her mouth. Some of the women she’d rescued from Baines’ warehouse had told her that he’d gotten them because they’d, at the time, been runaways, addicts, or street walkers and he promised employment of some kind. She’d just assumed that they were abductions of opportunity.

Yet the missing person’s reports had been for college girls and young professional women taken in the party district. Hina had connected them because of the area and the sheer number. Baines had become a suspect after he was spotted on bar security cameras at every crime scene, but he’d never been near the girls.

This had been at the beginning of the year. Johnson stated he’d joined shortly after and Baines stopped appearing in security footage. No probable cause, so they’d watched him.

Johnson had said that Baines was all about quotas. The uptick in abductions a year ago and the change in victimology was because Baines suddenly had a higher quota to fill. The preference was probably the girls with no one to report them missing, no one the police could look into or would just brush off.

The police might’ve not known what was going on but the runaways, addicts, and street walkers probably knew. If they went out alone a purple-haired monster was going to jump out of the shadows and take them. Baines would have found it harder to access his normally high risk targets, so he had to go after more low risk ones. Thus leading to a sudden police interest.

Tears leaked out of Tashigi’s eyes at the realization. She’d been so upset about Law’s accusations, yet the very case she wanted his help on proved that he was right about the police not caring about victims under a certain socioeconomic margin.

She tried to pull herself together.

She had to figure out why quotas went up a year ago.

But Tashigi was unable to focus on anything other than that Trafalgar Law was right.

“Deep In. Deep Out. Deep In. Deep Out.” She sobbed as she put her head between her knees. Her case was as good as dead. Law wouldn’t help her. Smoker and Hina wouldn’t go around asking criminals to look into suspicious crimes the police didn’t know about. Hells, she probably shouldn’t even bother with the Fish Man drug and murder case because she was clearly an awful detective who—

Tashigi jerked her head from between her knees.

Drugs.

One year ago Punk Hazard Chemical Plant went down. Luffy, Law, and Smoker stopped Donquixote Doflamingo’s production of Smile and took his main drug maker Caesar Clown as a bargaining chip. Vergo was defeated too. Then two months later Doflamingo himself was arrested. Thus leaving a large gap in the drug trade that _someone_ had to step in and fill.

Someone Tashigi suspected was connected to Baines and needed girls that they could force to sell drugs and then could murder if they got found out.

Tashigi sniffed and wiped her eyes.

She didn’t need Law, not if she could figure out who had forced those girls to try and sell drugs on Fish Man Island after Hody Jones was arrested. If it was a similar set up to Baines’ trafficking set up, then the head of the drug operation would know about something else in the larger picture. If she couldn’t get the head of the drug operation, then she could go to Baines with whatever she found in the Fish Man Drug case and he would tell her.

Tashigi set her teeth in a determined snarl. Law might be right, but she’d prove herself to him. She’d find those girls, she’d get them to safety and she’d do it regardless of their socioeconomic background or whatever case she was currently on.

She needed coffee.

Tashigi planned on not sleeping that night.

Again.

**********************

“Koby!” Tashigi shouted across the bullpen as she haphazardly slammed through the barrier gate. The pink-haired boy in question glanced up as his sleep-deprived, coffee-fueled older sister figure descended on him. “Koby, I need you to do something for me.”

“Have you slept?” Koby asked as he took in Tashigi’s untucked shirt, deep bags under her eyes, and the sweat still in her hair from her sparring session that morning.

“Not in 48 hours.” Tashigi said enthusiastically and her eye twitched.

Koby positioned himself between her and the coffee machine.

“Oh, Koby, I got coffee on my way here.” She snickered and sipped from her to go cup. Zoro had cut their sparring session short because Tashigi, as he said, was being an absolutely space case, again. Tashigi would have been more upset if she’d had more sleep and if she wasn’t so preoccupied with her case. Zoro’s concerned eye may have followed her as she skipped out of the dojo. “I need you to look into runaways from all the Blues and Paradise Provinces that fit our victim descriptions in the Baines case. I have a Go Crackers board set up in the apartment if you need references.”

She sipped her coffee expectantly.

Koby looked slightly terrified.

“Why does Koby look like that?” Helmeppo asked as he came to stand next to the two.

“I’ve asked him to do something a little impossible for me.” Tashigi said sweetly.

“Oh that gods.” Koby exhaled shakily. “I thought that you thought it was a reasonable request.” He placed a hand on his plaid bandana headband, absolutely relieved.

“No, I know it’s psychotic.” Tashigi smiled reassuringly, her eye still twitched though. “I’m looking into them too, but I’d like you and Helmeppo to help.”

“You want me to work outside of work?” Helmeppo whined.

“I’m about to make your only friend work outside of work and you don’t think you wouldn’t have found your way into that?” Tashigi scoffed and finished her coffee. “Where’s Smoker?”

“Running late.” Helmeppo said. “Hina’s car is having engine problems so he drove her to the G-2 today.”

“How is her serial going?”

“Very well apparently.” Helmeppo groaned and rolled his eyes. “The detective she’s paired with is apparently a very competent man and she just keeps gushing about him. It’s sickening.”

“Smoker better watch out.” Tashigi giggled.

“Actually,” Helmeppo smirked, “you better watch out.”

“What?” Tashigi gapped at the younger blond man.

“You’re gonna get set up on a date.” Koby singsonged and snickered behind his hand.

“Hina wouldn’t dare.” Tashigi huffed and swatted at him.

“Hina would dare.” Helmeppo sighed. “She’s very concerned about your personal life.”

“Great.” Tashigi huffed and folded her arms. “Hina talks to me about Smoker’s personal life and she talks to you two about my personal life. Why doesn’t she just talk to Smoker?”

“Because Smoker probably isn’t as responsive to your ‘lack of a boyfriend’ as we are.” Koby replied helpfully.

“The extent of Smoker’s concern about your ‘lack of a boyfriend’ is probably saying: ‘anyone but that green-haired punk’.” Helmeppo added. Tashigi blushed.

“Ugh, why?” She groaned and rubbed her face.

“You love us.” Koby said merrily.

“Reluctantly and under duress.” Tashigi muttered. “Don’t we have work to do?”

“Probably.” Helmeppo muttered into his ‘Little Prince’ mug.

“Oh.” Koby exclaimed and pulled his notepad from his pants pocket. “I found that license plate you asked me to hunt down. It’s from some private investigator located in Sabaody. This is his office number if you want to follow up.”

He ripped of the sheet of paper and handed it to Tashigi.

“Got nothing else to do until Smoker comes in.” She accepted the paper and set out to make a call.

************************************************

“I have another suspect.” Tashigi announced as Smoker arrived an hour late.

“Better than a nanny with a previous poisoning record?” Smoker grumbled as he set his bag on his desk.

“Your call.” She shrugged. “The car that was following Kestrel Tilly a couple weeks ago, Koby found it was registered to a Sabaody PI. Said PI was hired to follow all the women in Alfonse Salazar’s life by his wife, Nicoleta.” Tashigi handed her notes to Smoker.

“How does this move suspicion from Miss. Kestrel?” Smoker smiled at his eager subordinate. He could probably guess where she was going with it. But Tashigi had a tendency to give only half answers and expect you to understand the rest. A habit she developed due to her friendship with Isuka, who could finish her gods damned sentences. Smoker was training her to put all her thoughts out there, something she did very well with unless she was sleep-deprived.

“The PI helpfully told me that he uncovered Miss. Kestrel’s sordid past and gave all that information to Mrs. Alfonse weeks ago.” Tashigi said smugly. “So for several weeks, Nicoleta has been allowing a suspected poisoner to make lunch for her children.”

“Good work, Detective.” Smoker smiled. Tashigi preened at the compliment from her normally stingy superior. “I want you to call Mrs. Alfonse and Miss. Kestrel, have them both come down to the precinct.” Tashigi made to leave. “Wait, have the boys come too.”

“Why, Sir?” Tashigi asked in confusion.

“Alfonse’s financial records.” Smoker held up a file. “They came back yesterday with the forensic reports. “In the event of his death, all of Salazar’s money—save for a portion that goes to his wife—goes into trusts for his kids until they turn eighteen. Graves is a year away from that. It’s shaky but we got to cover all angles.”

Tashigi nodded uncertainly. She chewed her cheek as she returned to her desk. Graves hadn’t seemed like a bad kid to her, just an older brother trying to be brave for a little brother.

She’d known of another pair of brothers who’d done just the same on white marble steps.

*******************************

“I didn’t kill my husband.” Nicoleta sniffed in interrogation room two. Tashigi noticed she still fidgeted with her finger nails and shirt cuffs. It was more than nerves, considering how frayed and bloody her cuffs and cuticles were.

“But you did have a PI follow all the women in his life, correct?” Tashigi poised the question seriously.

“Yes, but that wasn’t so I could kill him.” Nicoleta cried. “Look, weeks ago Salazar told me he wanted a divorce. He didn’t say why, so I thought he’d found someone else.”

“Had he?” Tashigi asked curiously.

“No.” Nicoleta deflated in the metal chair. “None of the women in his life were sleeping with him, not even me.” She sniffed. “So I don’t know why he wanted a divorce.”

“But you did know about Kestrel Tilly’s past as Waverly Tamera.” Tashigi said. “So why didn’t you do anything?”

“Graves was eight years old when I married his father.” Nicoleta whispered and wiped tears from her eyes. “He was so incredibly clingy until Dane was born, then he just turned cold. I was never good with motherhood. Dane only cried when I held him, he wouldn’t breastfeed, everything was just awful. And Salazar wanted nothing to do with me after I became pregnant.” Nicoleta broke down a bit and Tashigi handed her a tissue from the package she always kept on her.

Tashigi felt bad for the woman. The dream life she’d married into was actually a nightmare.

“But Tilly,” Nicoleta continued after she’d blown her nose, “she was so good with both of them. Graves smiled at her and talked to her. She could listen to Dane’s chatter for hours. They love her. Even if she was a poisoner, she was the best nanny I ever hired. I couldn’t take that from my sons.”

“So you kept her on, even though she might be a threat?” Tashigi questioned in surprise. Smoker quietly opened the door to the interrogation room.

“Honestly, it was a bit selfish because I mostly didn’t want to deal with my sons myself.” Nicoleta sniffed in guilt.

“Was it also selfish because you used Miss. Kestrel’s background to frame her for your husband’s murder?” Smoker asked stoically. “You were unaccounted for at the vacation home.”

“What?” Nicoleta asked in a watery voice. “I don’t know what you’re talking about?”

“Your sons just told me that while they were watching TV, you couldn’t be found.” Smoker accused. “Graves told me he went downstairs to get water and you weren’t in your room and your car wasn’t in the driveway, care to explain?”

Nicoleta looked very ashamed.

“I was meeting a man.” She stuttered. “Doctor Calvins Greg.”

“So you were having an affair?” Smoker conjectured and Tashigi glanced between Nicoleta’s bleeding cuticles and nervous tics.

“No,” Nicoleta sighed and cast her eyes downward, “I didn’t meet Doctor Calvins for a tryst. He’s—well, he’s—”

“He’s your drug dealer?” Tashigi guessed as Nicoleta’s habits made more sense.

“Yes.” Nicoleta dropped her head in her hands. “He gives me a bag of pills and I use what I like from the batch and give the rest back the next time I see him.”

“Besides the obvious charges of drug possession.” Tashigi said gently as Smoker flared his nostrils in distaste. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

“In the last bag I got there was a full bottle of nitroglycerin pills.” Nicoleta admitted.

“So you killed your husband.” Smoker stated plainly.

“No.” Nicoleta said vehemently. “If you look at the parking lot footage of the restaurant, Cecile’s, where Doctor Calvins and I met, you’ll see that I was sitting in my car for a while after we met at 10.”

“Experiencing and coming down from a nice high?” Smoker snarled. Tashigi placed a calming hand on his arm. Nicoleta nodded in disgrace.

“Mrs. Alfonse,” Tashigi said gently, “Was the bottle of nitroglycerin in the bag when you returned it to Doctor Calvins?”

“I’m not sure, but I don’t think so.” Nicoleta answered in confusion.

“So any one who knew about your arrangement could have taken the pills?” Tashigi asked. Nicoleta shook her head fervently.

“No one knew.” Nicoleta insisted.

“You’d be surprised what people know.” Smoker grumbled and Nicoleta paled. “We’ll check out your alibi.” He stood and gestured for Tashigi to stand as well.

She followed him out into the hallway.

“Do you think she did it?” Tashigi sighed as she rubbed her neck. This case was a mess. Everyone had a motive and now, everyone had access to the murder weapon.

“Anyone could have done it at this point.” Smoker huffed. “No one had eyes on the others during the window of the murder. Kestrel was in the guest house, Dane was asleep, Graves downstairs, and Nicoleta off buying drugs. What a mess.”

“Did Graves admit to wanting to kill his father?” Tashigi asked nervously.

“I didn’t ask about that part.” Smoker sighed and stroked his chin. “The little one, Dane, wouldn’t leave his brother alone.” He turned to Tashigi. “Could you talk to him? I’m going to ask Koby to look into Nicoleta’s alibi.”

Tashigi nodded and her superior walked back to the bullpen, lighting two fresh cigars.

She entered interrogation four with a deep sigh.

The boys looked up as she entered.

“Hey,” She said gently as she sat down across from them, “I’m Detective Tashigi, do you remember me from the other day?” Dane nodded carefully and grabbed his brother’s hand.

“Yes.” Graves said shortly. “Are you here to ask us more questions?”

“Sort of.” Tashigi answered cautiously. “Dane, I was wondering if you wanted to go keep your mother or Miss. Kestrel company as I ask your brother some questions privately?” Graves stiffened imperceptibly at Tashigi’s words.

Dane looked at his brother, then at Tashigi’s gentle smile.

“It’s okay, Dane.” Graves said softly to his brother. “Go see Tilly.”

Dane stood and edged around the table, keeping as far from Tashigi as possible.

“She’s in room three.” Tashigi said kindly with a twinge of guilt at his fear.

Dane scurried out of the room.

“You guys scare him, you know.” Graves said accusingly. “He’s not this quiet. He thinks talking to you guys will get him in trouble. Just like talking got Tilly in trouble.”

“So you know then?” Tashigi questioned. “That Tilly was accused and acquitted of her father’s murder years ago.”

“Yeah.” Graves muttered and slouched in his chair. “She and Nic got into a real blow out about it the other night after you released her from custody.”

“Did Nicoleta not like that we hadn’t arrested her?” Tashigi asked and Graves shrugged.

“Dunno. She sure thought Tilly did it.”

“Do you think Tilly did it?”

“What’s it matter?” Graves scoffed. “That’s your decision to make.”

“Your opinion matters too.” Tashigi assured him. “I know you like Tilly, so do you think your stepmother did it?” Graves shrugged again. “Did you do it?”

Graves stilled immediately.

“What makes you think that?” Graves stuttered quietly, not looking at Tashigi.

“You stand to inherit a lot of money now that your father is dead.” Tashigi said and the tension bled from Graves’ shoulders. “You are only a year from turning eighteen.”

“This has got to be harassment.” Graves sneered. “My father is dead and you think I killed him for money.” He looked Tashigi dead in the eyes. Tashigi kept her face neutral, allowing Graves to speak without interruption. “Tilly did it. Father found out about her past and threatened to expose her.”

“How do you know?” Tashigi asked softly, slightly probing.

“I got them arguing on video.” Graves said and dug his phone from his jeans pocket. “Father thought someone had tried to break into his tablet. I don’t know why he immediately went to Tilly. He probably had all her information on there.”

The video was rather damning. Tilly was yelling just as forcefully as Alfonse Salazar.

“Why’d you record this?” Tashigi asked as she took the phone.

“Father,” Graves faltered slightly, “throws things when he’s angry. I wanted to have evidence in case he hurt Tilly.” His eyes dropped away from Tashigi’s steady brown ones.

“You truly care for her.” Tashigi stated. “You don’t want her to get in trouble.”

Graves shook his head.

Tashigi softened at his suppressed trembling lip.

“Why don’t you take your brother and go home?” She offered kindly. “We are unfortunately going to have to keep your phone, as well as your stepmother and nanny.”

Tashigi led Graves out of interrogation room four, then went to find Smoker.

He stewed at his desk. Filled the air with carcinogens as he mulled over the facts of the case. His usual process.

“Tilly’s motive got much stronger.” Tashigi huffed and showed Smoker the video.

“I’m going to interrogate her again.” He growled. “You wait for Koby to get back with Nicoleta’s alibi.”

Tashigi nodded.

“I sent the boys home, is that okay?” She called after him. Smoker waved dismissively over his shoulder.

Tashigi puffed irritated air from her cheeks and plopped down at her desk to do the paperwork for the case.

*************************************

“Alfonse Nicoleta technically has an alibi.” Koby sighed as he showed her the surveillance footage of Cecile’s parking lot. “The security footage only covers the front of the restaurant and parked around back. So, we see her car enter and go around back, then she enters the restaurant, twenty minutes later she leaves the restaurant and two hours later, her car comes back around to the front of the restaurant. ”

“Then Tilly is the only one without any kind of alibi.” Tashigi muttered and frowned at the paperwork. “Hey, did we recover a tablet from any of Mr. Alfonse’s things.”

“No. None.” Koby answered. “Why?”

“Graves said his father and Tilly got into an argument about someone trying to break into his tablet a week before the murder.” Tashigi murmured as she flipped through the files. “I wanted to see if Tilly’s background is on that tablet.”

“It’s probably back at the house then.” Koby grumbled.

“You can sit this one out, Kobs.” Tashigi laughed. “I’ll take Helmeppo with me. Just tell Smoker where I’ve gone and release Nicoleta, it might be flimsy but it is an alibi.”

“Thank you. Thank you.” Koby hugged her appreciatively. Tashigi patted his head and then pushed him off to the interrogation rooms.

“Helmeppo.” Tashigi shouted and the scowling blond appeared by her side.

“What?” He snapped.

“We’re going on a field trip, to the scene of the crime.” Tashigi said cheerfully. “Come.” She walked out of the bullpen, with a whining Helmeppo on her heels.

**********************************

“Must you drive it like you stole it?” Tashigi wheezed as she hunched over in the Alfonse driveway.

“You could have driven.” Helmeppo protested.

“You know Smoker has forbidden me from driving in the city.”

“Because you managed to break the rear axle of his car.”

“I maintain it broke itself.” Tashigi exhaled as she stood slowly. “We have a tablet to look for.”

The pair made their way up the steps of the house when the door swung open and Graves and Dane stepped out.

“Why are you back here?” Graves demanded with a frown. Dane edged behind his brother’s legs.

“We’ve come to search for your father’s tablet.” Tashigi explained. “It wasn’t found in our initial search. Where are you two going?”

“To a friend’s house, at least until Nic or Tilly gets back.” Graves said and didn’t meet Tashigi’s eyes.

“Carry on then.” She said distractedly and entered the house.

“Where do we start?” Helmeppo asked as they stood in the large entryway.

“Salazar’s room and study.” Tashigi ordered. “I’ll take the study.”

“Guess the bedroom is mine.” Helmeppo grumped.

“Have fun.” And they split up.

******************************

Tashigi had torn the study apart.

Not literally, she’d never do that to a study.

But she’d been over every inch of the room and no tablet.

She’d opened all the desk drawers. One had several suspicious scratches on it, but when she picked the lock it was questionably empty. So she’d found where the tablet had been.

She’d taken every book off the shelves and opened them. She found several business cards and Beri notes, but no tablet hidden in a secret compartment.

Tashigi even checked all the air vents. No dice.

She was in the process of peeling up the antique rug on the floor when Helmeppo slumped into the doorway of the study.

“The bedroom is clean.” He groaned and flopped into a leather armchair. “And I checked all the nooks and crannies.”

“Then it must be somewhere else in the house, because I’m having no luck.” Tashigi huffed as she brushed off her dress slacks and stood.

Helmeppo glanced around the room briefly before turning to Tashigi.

“Could you keep a secret?” He hissed.

“Always for you.” Tashigi smiled.

Helmeppo exhaled nervously, then spoke.

“When I was little, I used to break into my dad’s study to steal money from his secret spot.” The blond admitted. “Dad was always paranoid about people robbing his bank account or something, so he made a little hiding spot in the floor boards of his study to keep extra cash.”

“You think Mr. Alfonse did the same?” Tashigi questioned carefully. Helmeppo’s dad was rather a delicate subject for the young man.

He nodded and got out of the chair.

Helmeppo paced over the exposed floorboards under the window before he stopped and crouched near a far corner under some drapes. Tashigi joined him and saw that a seam on one of the planks was darker and wider than the others.

The blond officer flicked a pocket knife from his belt and lifted up the plank. It had a hidden hinge, so only half the plank came up and hidden in a cavity beneath was Salazar’s tablet.

“Good job, Helmeppo.” Tashigi praised and ruffled the young man’s hair. She snapped on gloves and lifted the tablet from its hiding place.

“I know I should feel patronized, but I had very little positive reinforcement as a child.” Helmeppo grumbled, his cheeks red.

“Well, I’m very proud of your detective skills.” Tashigi assured him. “Let’s get his back to your better half.”

“Oh my gods, he’s my best friend not my better half.”

“People can be two things.”

“Let’s just go.”

******************************

“Helmeppo found it?” Koby gushed as he fiddled with a device plugged into the tablet, running password combinations. “That’s amazing.”

“I’m trying to pass the detectives’ exam too.” Helmeppo defended as they crowded around the young man at Tashigi’s desk. Jango and Fullbody were gone, being well occupied with their cult case and had fully transitioned into stake-out mode. “Don’t sound surprised at my skills.”

“You’ll both be great detectives.” Tashigi placated as she focused on the cycling numbers. “Koby how long does this take?”

“Could be a few minutes could be—oh!”

The tablet unlocked and the three were treated to a rather innocuous background of rolling hills. There was only one icon on the homepage.

“Koby, click on the file.” Tashigi ordered and the pink-haired man did so. The contents were mostly business files until they noticed an unnamed locked file. “Could you unlock that one?”

“I’ll try.” Koby clicked a couple of times before a screen popped up asking for another password. “And running the cycles again.”

It took less time and the locked file was opened.

“It’s just more files with dates on them.” Helmeppo frowned.

“Click on the one for this year.” Tashigi said, brows furrowed.

Koby complied. “It’s a bunch of video files.” Koby clicked on the first one.

“Is that Salazar and Graves?” Helmeppo asked as he squinted to tell what was going on.

Tashigi gasped in horror as she realized what was happening in the video.

She slapped a hand over Koby’s eyes and backed out of the video.

“What? What’s going on?” Koby questioned as he tried to pull Tashigi’s hand off.

Tashigi turned to a pale faced Helmeppo. He’d figured it out too.

“Go get Smoker.” She ordered. “Now.”

Helmeppo snapped out of his horrified daze and ran to get Smoker.

Tashigi pulled Koby away from the desk and the tablet.

“Koby,” She said as she uncovered his eyes, “call Nicoleta and tell her to bring Graves to the station.”

“What’s going on?” He demanded.

“I will tell you after you call Nicoleta.” She pressed him towards the phone and returned to the tablet. She back out to read the years on each folder and check them. Nine years, each filed with over a dozen videos.

“What’s wrong?” Smoker demanded as he approached the desk. “Helmeppo said you found something on the tablet.” Helmeppo was pale and quiet behind the larger man.

“Remember when you thought this morning that Graves might have killed his father.” Tashigi said steadily and her hands trembled around the tablet. “Now, I agree with you.” She handed it to Smoker. “Alfonse Salazar was sexually abusing his own son.”

“Shit.” Smoker hissed as he looked at the numerous video files.

Koby jogged over to the three. “Alfonse Nicoleta says something is wrong at the house.”

“We need to go there.” Smoker said quickly. “We need to go there now.”

**************************************

“They’re gone. They’re gone.” Nicoleta sobbed as the Sargent, detective, and two officers stepped out of the car. “I woke up from my nap when Officer Koby called me. I checked Graves’ room and found a note saying that he and Dane had run away.” She handed the note to Smoker.

“Fuck.” The white-haired man hissed as he read the note.

“Why?” Nicoleta begged Tashigi, who stared stone faced at the house. “Why?”

“We can’t tell you, ma’am.” Smoker growled. “But it involves your husband’s death.”

Nicoleta dissolved into hysterical tears.

“Tashigi, search Graves’ room. Find where he could go.” Smoker ordered. “Helmeppo, calm Mrs. Alfonse down. Koby, search Dane’s room. I’ll search the rest of the house.”

Koby and Helmeppo, both pale faced and silent, nodded stiffly.

Tashigi marched through the house and up to Graves’ room.

As she searched she mulled over the evidence she’d seen well before the videos.

Graves hadn’t shed a tear for his father. He’d tensed when she’d asked if he killed him. He wouldn’t look her in the eye when she said she’d returned to search for the missing tablet.

Tashigi should have known he was lying, but she hadn’t wanted to assume that the good older brother had killed his father.

Now, she knew he had.

And she wished anything else were true.

She crouched down to peer under Graves’ bed when she noticed something crumpled and pushed under his night stand.

Grunting Tashigi reached under the night stand and retrieved a wadded scrap of fabric.

She carefully smoothed out the wrinkles, then groaned.

It was a Whitebeard banner.

Tashigi was going to have to ask a favor of Monkey D. Luffy.

She’d need to see his brother, Ace.

******************************

Tashigi stood stoically at the gate of Thousand Sunny house.

Unlike the previous night, when she’d tried to ask Trafalgar Law for help, Tashigi wasn’t lacking courage. She was trying to bring her usual nervous smile to her face, but it just wouldn’t come.

She needed to speak with Alfonse Graves before the evidence proved him guilty. There were mitigating circumstances to his murder of his monster father. At most he’d get eighteen months. But that would only happen if he gave his side of the story.

Even if the videos proved the circumstances more than enough.

Tashigi gave up on trying to smile.

She gripped Shigure’s hilt and marched up to the Strawhats’ door.

Nami’s smile slipped off her face at the sight of Tashigi’s stoic look.

“Tashigi?” Nami asked, worried. “Is everything alright.” She stepped forward and placed a hand on Tashigi’s shoulder.

“I need to speak to Luffy.” Tashigi said seriously and gently pushed Nami’s hand off her. She couldn’t bare t be touched, not with when she’d just discovered about her case.

Nami lead her into the living room were the Strawhats, and Law to her surprise, were gathered, laughing at some television program. Silence fell at Tashigi’s grim look.

“Tashi?” Luffy cocked his head as Nami whispered quickly in his ear. “What’s up?”

“Portgas D. Ace.” She said firmly and the room inhaled sharply. “I need you to call him and ask him if he has two boys, Graves and Dane, in his care.”

“I don’t know.” Luffy said warily.

“Please.” Tashigi paused as her voice cracked. “Please,” she repeated, voice under control, “it is a matter of dire importance.”

She pressed her trembling lips together and kept her eyes to the floor as Luffy thankfully dialed his brother.

“Ace!” Luffy exclaimed eagerly when his brother picked up. “I have a friend here, who wants to know if you have two kids called Graves and Dane.” Silence as Ace’s muffled response came over the line. “Yeah, she’s a cop. How’d you know?”

Tashigi closed her eyes as the silence stretched on.

“Tashi.” She looked up at Luffy’s voice and flinched at the seriousness in his eyes. “Ace says you want to arrest the boys.” Sharp glances were thrown her way throughout the room and there was slight confusion and disgust mixed in. Law scoffed and shook his head.

“Tell your brother that I do not wish to arrest the boys.” She took a deep breath. “The only thing I want to do is talk to Graves.”

Luffy relayed her message.

“Ace says that Graves knows you and trusts you, but Ace isn’t convinced.” Luffy repeated slowly as his brother spoke. “He says he needs proof you’re a good cop.”

Law scoffed again.

Tashigi weighted her options. She had the perfect proof for Ace, but it would break her best friend’s trust. If she didn’t break her best friend’s trust, Smoker would find forensic evidence against Graves and he’d go away for life in Impel Down or live life as a fugitive with his brother.

Tashigi decided that Graves had suffered enough.

“Tell Portgas D. Ace that my best friend is Kugi Isuka.” She sighed. “And if he doesn’t believe me. Tell him I know he fought and defeated Sargent Draw to save her life years ago. I also know that he emailed her last year when he recovered his health. And that she never responded.”

Luffy relayed her words and there was an exceedingly long pause.

“Ace says he let you come to Whitebeard Firehouse Zero the day after tomorrow.” Tashigi sagged in relief. “However,” she stiffened again, “he says that you can only come with us,” he gestured to all the Strawhats, “and that you must tell him why Isuka didn’t respond when you get there. Deal?”

All eyes looked expectantly at her.

“Deal.”

Isuka wasn’t going to be happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oof! Plots are hard guys. I'm trying to weave a large plot throughout this story, while also having crimes of the month to try a tie the larger criminal plot to the larger romantic plot. Let's hope I don't over extend myself.  
> Garp pulling out his tooth is from Parks & Rec, just because Garp is a Ron Swanson type of dude, just with more smiling and laughing.  
> The inspiration for June's crime of the month comes from Elementary Season 2, Episode 4 "Poison Pen", just because the resolution is something I want Tashigi to grapple with as a detective.  
> I hope this isn't too long of a chapter. I was having trouble with dividing up the content.


	11. June III

"Glasses,” Zoro snarled when she opened her door at 5:30am, “Ya really gotta start sleeping if we’re gonna keep sparring.”

He was referencing the still prominent bags under her eyes that were amplified by her glasses. Tashigi knew the puffy, purplish skin had been noticeable the previous evening when she’d gone to ask for Luffy’s assistance. She also knew that the bags were worse that morning.

“You know what the tragic thing is?” Tashigi snapped as she slammed her door behind her. “I did sleep.”

“Not fucking well.” He scoffed and clomped down the rickety steps. Tashigi tripped twice on the loose boards, as she always did.

“Lay off, Roronoa.” Tashigi growled and stomped off into the morning mist.

They walked to the dojo in caustic silence.

Tashigi was in a foul mood. She’d tried to sleep the night before, but Graves’ stricken face had decorated her eyelids every time her eyes drooped close. His father’s face was sometimes there as well, leering.

The case was a disaster. The last thing she wanted to do was arrest Graves for a murder he definitely committed, but was completely justified in doing so. Tashigi was upset by the unfairness of it all and was more than willing to take it out on anyone who rubbed her the wrong way.

Pushing Tashigi’s buttons was one of Zoro’s special skills.

Although the Demon Swordsman himself wasn’t a happy camper either.

Literal storm clouds rolled across his brow as Tashigi tugged him in the correct direction for the fifth time and he jerked his elbow out of her grasp.

Tashigi sneered at his attitude and wondered what his problem was.

Perona could see the dark miasmic cloud of tension that simmered between the two sword freaks as she unlocked the dojo doors. The Goth Lolita snorted in disgust, her psychic had told her there’d be explosions in her future and she’d rather have real ones than their emotionally stunted outbursts.

Tashigi dropped her bag and kicked off her sneakers aggressively as she enter the training room. She took a position in the center of the room, Shigure drawn.

“Like hell.” Zoro scoffed and leaned his swords against the wall. He stripped his hoodie and his shirt off. “We work on hand to hand today.”

“What?” Tashigi cried heatedly. “Why?”

“Because, Glasses,” Zoro snarled and held out his hand for Shigure, to put it against the wall with his own swords, “you’ve been a pissy space case for days. It’d be a real pain in my ass to drag you to the hospital because you impaled yourself on your own damned sword.”

“I might be clumsy, Roronoa but I’m not inept.” Tashigi hissed and clutched Shigure to her chest. “I would never impale myself on my own sword.”

“Rather not risk it.” Zoro gritted and stalked over to the stubborn woman. “Would you like to not train at all?” He asked as he crowded Tashigi’s space.

Tashigi pouted as she glared up at Zoro.

“Fine.” She relented and shoved past him to gently lay Shigure next to Enma on the wall.

Zoro and Tashigi squared off at the center of the room. Both glared at each other, each foul mood feeding the other. Both too stubborn to address the issue.

Tashigi itched impatiently. She had a million things to do and half as many things to think about and Roronoa Zoro was standing calm as can be. Gods she just wanted to do something. Something useful.

She lashed out.

A series of rapid kicks aimed at Zoro’s chest.

Zoro blocked with his forearms. He swung an arm wide and targeted Tashigi’s shoulder.

She slapped his arm away and ducked under the swing that followed. She punched toward his stomach.

Zoro caught her fists in his larger hands and twisted her around. Tashigi’s arms were locked in an X across her chest and her back was pressed against his chest. She tried to jerk out of the hold, but Zoro held tight.

Tashigi flushed at the hot breath against her neck. It made her weak and she hated it.

She clenched her teeth and stomped backward onto Zoro’s toes.

“Fuck.” Zoro snarled into her neck. “That’s dirty, Glasses.” He hadn’t moved.

“Didn’t you say distraction is a staple in battle?” Tashigi hissed as she struggled under his muscular forearms. “Well so are dirty tricks.”

She stamped on his foot again, earning an irritated grunt.

“If that’s how you wanna play it.” His words were hot in her ear. It made the heat in her abdomen coil tighter, which made her even more frustrated. Zoro moved to hold both her jerking wrists in one hand, then ran his fingers up and down Tashigi’s side with the other.

Tashigi bucked and writhed against the flurry of sensation. She forced her laughter down her throat.

The damn bastard was tickling her.

“Damnit, Zoro.” Tashigi wheezed as tears leaked from her eyes from the strain of holding her laughter in. “Stop it.”

“Tell me why you’re upset.” He demanded against her neck.

“What?” Tashigi gasped. Was he really using tickling as an interrogation tactic? “Who says I’m upset?”

“You’re a horrible fucking liar, Glasses.” Zoro huffed and reached over to tickle her other side. “You’ve been in a bad mood since the party.”

“It’s got nothing to do with you.” Tashigi snapped as she strained against his arm. She jerked back against him repeatedly as she tried to avoid the irritating fingers.

“Could’ve fooled me.” The man mumbled and Tashigi paused at the annoyance in his voice. “You almost took my head off that night.”

“You were being insufferable.” She grunted and tried kick backwards. Zoro spread his stance wide and Tashigi’s wild kicking nearly made them pitch forward.

“Watch it, crazy legs.” Zoro warned as he staggered his stance, placing one leg between Tashigi’s and effectively stopping her flailing. “I wasn’t. I was just asking why you were being a doormat.”

“And I told you.”

“You yelled at me.”

“I’ve yelled at you before.”

“Not like that. Normally you’re all hot air and red face.” Zoro grumbled. “You’re not actually angry and you don’t ever say anything you really mean.” Tashigi stilled. When had he become so perceptive?

“I-I was nervous.” She stuttered and stopped struggling; Zoro stopped tickling. “I’d never been to one of your parties before and on top of that I had a goal to accomplish.”

“A goal?”

“It was case related.” Tashigi puffed her cheeks stubbornly. Even unofficial cases are confidential.

“Why is everything about work with you?” Zoro sighed and dropped his head to her shoulder, shaking it in disappointment. “Is that why you talked to Tra-guy?” There was an edge to his voice that Tashigi didn’t understand. She wished she could she him and read the lines of his face.

“It is absolutely ridiculous that you call him that.” Tashigi huffed. “And it’s none of your business.”

“It became my business when you stormed off and I had to deal with whiny children wondering why you weren’t staying for fun.” Zoro said grumpily. “Really when you’re upset, they get upset, and it becomes my problem.”

“They were upset?” Tashigi asked retreating a little from her indignation at his incessant questions. She winced as she imagined Chopper’s big brown eyes watering in disappointment.

“So upset.” Zoro hummed. “Had to stop them from chasing after you. So, why’d you talk to Tra-guy?”

“How do you always get me to talk?” Tashigi grumbled.

“You always want to talk, Glasses. It’s the topic getting you to talk about that’s the hard part.” Zoro chuckled. So damn perceptive for a man who got turned around in his own house.

“I asked him for help on a case, well cases.”

“What? Didn’t like sharing your precious police work with a dirty criminal?” Zoro was in a better mood, snickering at Tashigi’s flushed nape and loosening his hold. “What’d he say?”

“He said no.” Tashigi grumped. “And that’s all I’m going to tell you.”

“C’mon, Glasses,” Zoro sighed, “you might be sensitive, but you don’t storm off because some goth punk like Law tells you no.” He leaned close to Tashigi’s ear. “What happened?”

“I’m not telling you.”

“C’mon. Spill. I’ll play dirty again.” His fingers flexed at her side.

“I said,” Tashigi snarled through gritted teeth and suddenly planted both feet on the knee Zoro had wedged between her legs, “I’m not going to tell you.” With all the strength in her core Tashigi pushed off his knee and curled upwards. She wrapped her legs around Zoro’s head.

The green-haired man stumbled back, cursing.

He released her wrists to reach up and grip the thighs that were clamped on either side of his face.

Tashigi, freed but upside down, used her hands to push herself up Zoro’s front to kneel shakily on his shoulders. Then she placed her feet on Zoro’s shoulder blades and propelled away from him. She landed on the mats with a grunt and rolled until she came up in a crouch, fists raised.

Zoro whirled around to face her, with his eyebrows were raised in shock.

“Where the fuck did that come from?” He said in amazement.

“The only gym options in my high school were tennis or gymnastics.” Tashigi smirked. “I made a risky choice, but it paid off.” A wickedly gleeful fire lit in Zoro’s eye.

“You’ve been holding out on me, Glasses.” Zoro smiled crookedly. “I’m definitely going to go harder on you in training, but I still want you to tell me why Tra-guy saying no upset you.”

“Like hell, Roronoa.”

“Always am.”

Zoro lunged forward to strike. Tashigi dodged and swept his leg.

He jumped, planted, and kicked out. Tashigi felt her bun waver in the rush of his leg passing over her head.

She shot up and struck rapidly at his face and neck.

Zoro blocked her hand every time. He hooked his leg around hers and tried to pull it out from under her as he pushed.

Tashigi ducked her shoulders under his hand before sinking a crouch.

Once low to the floor, she rolled forward.

She spun as she stood up, only to come face to face with an advancing Zoro.

Tashigi blocked his blows towards her face, while using her legs to stop his kicks.

He advanced. She retreated.

Tashigi’s back smacked the wall and Zoro’s hands planted on either side on her head.

“Why were you upset?” Zoro asked evenly. Tashigi hated how he barely broke a sweat while she was a panting mess.

“None of your damn business.” She huffed and placed one hand on his neck and the other on his wrist by her head.

Zoro’s eyebrows jumped in surprise at the contact, then Tashigi hooked her ankle behind his and jerked as hard as she could while pushing the taller man.

Zoro landed flat on his back while Tashigi kneeled over him in victory.

It was short lived.

Zoro flipped her smaller form easily and pinned Tashigi to the bamboo mats.

“Why were you upset?”

“None of your business.” Tashigi swung one arm at him. He pinned her wrist to the mat with his hand.

“Why were you upset?”

“Lay off.” Tashigi jabbed at his side. He pinned her other hand.

“Why were you upset?”

“It’s not your problem.” Tashigi said in frustration as she tried to kick him. He spread his knees between her legs until her legs hooked around his thighs.

“Why were you upset?”

“Because he was right.” Tashigi shouted chest heaving. “Law said that the police only cared about people with money and status and he was right. The case I wanted his help on was proof of that.”

“You and Smoker condemn cops like that all the time.” Zoro grumbled. “Why the fuck did you care?”

“’Cause he insinuated that I was one of them.” Tashigi’s voice had dropped to a whisper. “He said there was no way to prove to him otherwise. It’s just so hopeless, Zoro. If I don’t get his help, then I can’t find the girls, and I can’t get his help because I can’t prove I care about the victims.” Her voice had become watery. “I probably made it even worse with the Graves situation. Oh gods.” Tashigi sniffed.

“Shit, Tashigi, don’t cry.” Zoro sounded panicked and he released her wrists.

Tashigi buried her face in her hands. Deep In. Deep Out. She could feel her shoulders trembling against the mat as she tried to regain her composure.

He carefully pulled her into a sitting position, still kneeling in front of her.

Gentle, calloused fingers pried her smaller ones tenderly from her face. A dark eye swam with concern as brows scrunched together. Zoro brushed away the few traitorous tears that escaped onto her cheeks.

Tashigi whipped the back of her hand under her nose. Oh gods, snot.

“Your cases really mess you up, huh?” Zoro said quietly as he rubbed his thumb in light soothing circles on her shoulder. Tashigi gripped his wrist weakly with one hand but didn’t try to push him away. She was calmed by his touch.

She nodded mutely.

“Then I guess Law is wrong about you.” Tashigi blinked and raised her chin in surprise. “I don’t think any bad cop would beat themselves up half as much as you do. Don’t think they’d work as much as you do either.”

“I don’t work that much.” Tashigi mumbled and bit her lip.

“You brought crime scene photos to dinner.” Zoro laughed softly. His thumb was still making light, little circles, but his other hand had reached up to brush across her cheek, clearing away stray tears. “And you nearly skipped dinner to work.”

“It was a lead.” She blushed.

“The thing is, Law is a bit of an Asshole and the last time he spent over an hour with you was at Punk Hazard. Where you wasted most of the time on opposite sides and pissing each other off. He has not had the pleasure of watching you think yourself into a hole. So he doesn’t know, therefore you don’t need to prove jackshit to him.” Zoro stated firmly. “So stop sulking.”

Tashigi snorted at his last comment, but thought about his words. She knew that Law had spoken several truths about the police, she wouldn’t deny that. But she guessed she could agree with Zoro. Law didn’t know her. He didn’t have the right to say she was a bad detective because of one interaction.

If she proved herself to him, it would not be because she needed to, it would be because she’d done her job and done it right.

“Zoro.”

“Hmm?”

“Thanks.”

“Thanking gangsters now?” Zoro chuckled as he leaned toward her. “Isn’t that against protocol?”

“A stopped clock is right twice a day.” Tashigi giggled, one of her rare feminine sounds.

“That was new.” Zoro mumbled as his mouth quirked in a half smile and his eyelid drooped a bit. “Kinda wanna hear it again.”

He was very close. Breath ghosting her face as he cupped her cheek. The hand on her shoulder stilled and his fingers splayed across her collar bone.

Tashigi inhaled sharply as Zoro tilted his head slightly and his breath mingled with her own. She reached up and tentatively rested her hand on the bicep of the hand that held her face. His muscles twitched under her fingers. She was aware of his knees touching her own as his nose just barely brushed her own.

Tashigi closed her eyes and inclined her head upwards to—

“Really, Roronoa? In the training room?” A cool voice asked.

Tashigi jerked away from Zoro.

She, red in the face, scrambled wildly up from the bamboo mats. A flailing leg caught Zoro in the stomach, he grunted in surprise and fell back slightly.

Tashigi winced apologetically toward him as she stood clumsily.

Dracule “Hawk Eyes” Mihawk stood in the doorway.

Tashigi refused to look at either Mihawk or Zoro, who was slowly standing to his feet. She focused on the hole over her big toe in her left sock and the extreme amount of heat radiating from her face.

Saint Tashigi was praying for a merciful universe to send lightning to strike her down.

The universe was not merciful and Tashigi was its favorite cosmic joke.

“Yes. Perona told me you were suddenly showing up on time for work.” Mihawk said taciturnly. “I was concerned that you were ill or perhaps under threat, but I see now it might be something else.”

She shrank slightly under Mihawk’s inquisitive gaze.

“Er, well, this is Glas—Tashigi, and we train together.” Zoro coughed awkwardly. Tashigi appreciated that he had the good sense not to call her by that horrific nickname in front of literally the greatest swordsman in the world.

“Hmm, I’m glad you’ve finally taken my advice, Roronoa.” Mihawk hummed in monotone. “Where’d he meet you, Miss. Tashigi?”

“Uh, uh,” Tashigi sputtered and looked up from her toes, shocked by the attention from the legendary sword master, “I arrested him.” She immediately pressed her lips together in mortification. There were so many other things she could’ve said.

“I see.” Mihawk raised his eyebrow at her and pursed his lips.

Zoro snorted next to her.

Tashigi glanced over to see he had his arms crossed, with one lifted to hold his face in his hands. Zoro had a crooked smirk on his lips. Why did he have to find so much joy in her suffering?

“Ah, go easy on Glasses, old man.” Zoro said and nudged Tashigi’s shoulder reassuringly. Tashigi was not reassured. She was reminded of his muscles shifting under her hand, which caused a harder blush. “She’s a good fighter.”

“I’m a little more concerned that she’s a police officer.” Mihawk sighed, irritated.

“Detective, actually.” Tashigi piped. “But that isn’t helpful information.”

“Roronoa, you know I enjoy my privacy.” Mihawk said sternly and Tashigi heard a disgruntled and long-suffering sigh come from Zoro. “Having a detective here compromises that.”

“Look,” Zoro huffed and rubbed his temple, “Glasses is just as paranoid as you. She considers training with me absolutely embarrassing.”

“Okay, woah, I wouldn’t go that far, Roronoa.” Tashigi admonished quickly as she saw Mihawk’s red eyes narrow. “I find our sparring very educational, but I’m not stupid enough to tell anyone I’m training with you. I mean,” she laughed nervously, “what do I wanna do, get fired?” Tashigi chuckled awkwardly in the silence. “I should go.”

Tashigi edged skittishly around a statuesque Mihawk and slipped on her sneakers. She didn’t like that it was becoming a sudden theme that their training hour kept getting cut short, though Tashigi knew she was a little at fault.

“See you tomorrow morning, Glasses.” Zoro grumbled as he squared off with Mihawk. Tashigi made to nod, then remembered what occupied the second half of her day.

“Ah, actually,” Tashigi grimaced sheepishly, “I pulled overtime for a case, So I’ll be working through the night.”

Zoro scowled deeply at the guilty woman.

“Glasses, I swear—” Zoro snarled as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Well, I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon.” Tashigi interrupted quickly and bolted before the one-eyed swordsman could yell at her for not sleeping again.

She blew past Perona at the desk and hauled ass to the nearest bus stop.

Only when Tashigi was firmly planted in a bus seat did she release the breath she was holding. She clutched her gym bag to her chest.

Roronoa Zoro had been going to kiss her. She’d hadn’t been imagining it, they’d been way too close to brush it off as anything else. But why? She’d considered it impossible from him to have any kind of affection for her.

And yet.

The gentle touches to her face, for a man normally so incapable of tenderness, and the worry for her mental well-being. He’d treated her like he’d treat a member of his friend group, with rough concern—heavy-handed and then soft, when approached with open vulnerabilities.

And perhaps the worst part. Tashigi, despite all her distancing, had folded in his arms. Crumbled under his brand of care and concern, then eagerly awaited the kiss.

She leaned her head against the bus window.

Oh, Tashigi was in deep. Way, way too deep.

*******************************

“I want to thank you for seeing me today.” Tashigi said as Fukaboshi closed the door to his Captain’s office. Captain Udaijin was kind enough to let the three brothers use his office to discuss the drug and murder case with Tashigi. Then again, they were the Governor of Fish Man Islands sons. Fukaboshi dragged the captain’s chair from behind the desk to place it next to the wooden chair Tashigi perched on. Manboshi and Ryuboshi sat opposite on the worn leather couch the captain kept in his office.

“We’d like to thank you for taking the case.” Manboshi said. He was a rotund, stocky, and large man with fluffy brown hair covered by a blue hat with a dirty white stripe. He was a uniformed officer, while his older brothers were detectives. Tashigi was a little weirded out that he sang when he talked, but dismissed it as a Hina-like quirk. “When Jinbe told us a mainlander agreed to look over the case, we were surprised.”

“Mainlanders don’t really care what goes wrong on Fish Man Island.” Ryuboshi said. He also sang when he talked. He was extremely tall and thin man with wide eyes, long wavy dark pink hair, and buck teeth. “Why do you?” He didn’t ask in a suspicious way, rather more out of curiosity.

“I, unfortunately, believe the girls you evicted for selling drugs on the island were kidnapped by a trafficking ring that the G-5 busted in May.” Tashigi explained. All three men put their heads in their hands.

“They told us and we didn’t believe them.” Fukaboshi said somberly. He did not sing when he talked. He was an enormous and muscular man, with a wide chest and large arms. He had a long face, framed by wavy sky blue hair flowing down to his shoulders.

“It’s not your fault.” Tashigi said soothingly. “The people who kidnapped them and put them in the situation are responsible.”

“It’s kind of you to say that, but we were the ones who ordered them off the Island.” Ryuboshi sighed and rubbed the back of his neck.

Tashigi could understand the weight they held. It was probably similar to the responsibility she felt when she looked at the pictures of the missing girls in her study.

“What can you tell me about the drug case?” Tashigi asked. “The file I was given was only about the murder, the drugs are only referenced in relation to why they were removed from the island.” Fukaboshi nodded.

“After we arrested Hody Jones, we cleaned the streets of his products. We had his entire operation behind bars so it wasn’t that hard.” Fukaboshi explained. “We really do have a lot to thank the Strawhats for, anyway, we got a majority of the users into rehab programs and for three months we had the lowest drug numbers in the history of this department.”

“Then the hospital reported the first overdose.” Manboshi said sadly. “Within days we had five dead and seven others in critical condition. The drugs were like nothing we’d ever encountered before. It had traditional MDMA properties, but it was laced with something our forensic labs couldn’t figure out.”

He opened a casefile on the coffee table and pulled out a picture of a bright red disk. It was clearly a club drug, brightly colored and with an insignia stamped on the flat side. The insignia was strange however.

“That is the freakiest wolf I’ve ever seen.” Tashigi mumbled. The lips were pulled back from snarling fangs and a thick forked tongue spilled out of the mouth. The ears were pointing straight out to the side.

“Creeped us out too.” Ryuboshi agreed. “Couldn’t understand how anybody could accept a drug with such a marking.”

“Because we couldn’t figure out what it was laced with,” Fukaboshi continued, “we couldn’t find out which gang made it, so we had to find the dealers to get to the source.”

“You went to clubs?” Tashigi asked, surprised, she wasn’t aware the Fish Man Island had any clubs. Most people went to Sabaody to party, or if they liked rougher stuff the Divider Strip in the New World districts.

“There are no official clubs on Fish Man.” Fukaboshi explained. “Anybody who wants to party on Fish Man must have an insider to the underground rave scene. Ours is Hatchan.”

“From the Arlong gang?” Tashigi hadn’t heard that name in years. Whispered in the far reaches of the East Blue province, until Luffy snuffed it out.

“Formerly.” Manboshi added quickly. “He runs a Takoyaki restaurant now, but we ask him to keep an ear to the ground.”

“He told us a big rave was going down in the abandoned Big Mom Candy Factory.” Ryuboshi said. “We raided the place and found the girls with bags of the red pills. We brought them in and interrogated them.”

“We should’ve know something was up.” Fukaboshi sighed and ran a hand through is hair. “They gave up the apartment they were squatting in without cutting any kind of deal. Told us exactly where to find the rest of the drugs. It was the easiest bust we’d ever done.”

“With some of the most dangerous product we’ve ever seen.” Manboshi added.

“Around when did they tell you they’d been kidnapped?” Tashigi asked. She had assumed it was the first thing the girls had said to the men.

“It was probably second day we had them in Ryugu Jail.” Fukaboshi mused. “By the ancient treaty with the mainlanders, any mainlander found committing a crime on Fish Man is to be extradited to the nearest precinct for charging. However since the crime is committed on Fish Man Island, police often don’t acknowledge that a crime took place because Fish Man is out of jurisdiction. The law was specifically made so mainlanders could get away with anything on Fish Man Island and face no consequences back home, despite the fact that we are one bridge crossing away.”

“To prevent literal murder from happening, our forefathers began banning mainlanders who committed crimes from returning to Fish Man Island.” Ryuboshi stated. “Because Marineford is another legal crossing point it was something we were within our rights to do. We maintain a list of banned mainlanders that all uniformed officers on check point duty must memorize. It’s the only way we can prevent mainlanders from going wild here.”

“We told the girls we were banning them from Fish Man.” Manboshi said. “They asked why we weren’t prosecuting and imprisoning them and we explained. They became upset and told us that they were kidnapped and forced to sell drugs so they should be allowed to stay.”

“We didn’t believe them because we thought they would return to selling drugs and we’d have another Hody situation.” Fukaboshi explained. “In the end we had to choose between the safety of our people and those of strangers.”

“You made the best decision you could with the evidence you had.” Tashigi comforted the larger man, patting his arm inelegantly. “How many days after did you find their bodies?”

“About four days later their bodies washed up on the shore.” Manboshi gulped, a little green around the gills. “Body dumps up river from Fish Man usually end up on our shores.”

“Which side of the Island?” Tashigi asked, jotting down the information.

“New World side.” Ryuboshi replied. “Cause of death was a gunshot to the head execution style.” Professionals then, or they’ve done it before.

“In the past three to four years have any other bodies of young women washed up on the New World side with similar causes of death?” Tashigi asked and the three brother looked contemplative.

“Not any that I can remember.” Fukaboshi muttered, “if a dead mainlander turns up on our shores we report it to the nearest precinct, make our own file and then turn the body over. However, a lot of the bodies don’t get collected by the precinct, so we keep them in cold storage for three months then cremate them and move them to the Unclaimed Dead Cemetery.”

“I could probably punch the criteria into the database and see if it generates case files.” Manboshi offered helpfully.

“I’d appreciate that.” Tashigi said gratefully and the youngest brother left the captain’s office. “Could I take the drug case file with me too?”

“Of course.” Fukaboshi said. “Anything that could help figure this out.”

Tashigi flipped through the file, looking at pictures of the abandon candy factory and the derelict apartment located in the mostly empty Fish-Man District.

“Did the girls tell you how they covered the last district?” Tashigi asked as she looked at the map of Fish Man Island pinned to the apartment wall in the photo.

“What do you mean?” Ryuboshi asked.

“Well there are five districts on Fish-Man Island and only four girls, or did they skip Fish-Man District because that’s where they set up their base?” Tashigi looked up when neither brother answered. They bother looked confused. “What?”

“There were five girls.” Fukaboshi said slowly. “Their mug shots are in the back of the file.” Tashigi frantically flipped to the back of the drug file.

Five indeed. Four who matched the cadaver photos in the homicide file and one girl, with stringy bleached hair and bottomless black eyes, who wasn’t there.

“But you only pulled four bodies out of the Redline.” Tashigi whispered. There was a hopeful tremor in her voice: this was a lead.

The two brothers scrambled to check the files.

“Dang.” Fukaboshi breathed. “How did we miss that?”

“She was the quietest one.” Ryuboshi said contemplatively. “We got more information from the other four.”

“That might be the reason she survived.” Tashigi mused. If the girl hadn’t talked and turned over the other four then there was a chance she was alive.

Manboshi returned breathless with a printed list.

“It the past four years there have been exactly eighty-nine bodies that match the descriptor.” He wheezed and held the list out to Fukaboshi.

“By Poseidon.” Fukaboshi muttered as he scanned the list. “That’s a lot.

“Would it be too much trouble to ask to borrow those files?” Tashigi asked nervously.

“You can have them all.” Fukaboshi said and stood. “Brothers, help me retrieve the files for Detective Shoi.”

“Thank you!” Tashigi cried after them as they left the room. She turned back to the two files on the table and ran a finger over the names of the girls in their mug shots. She was making headway.

***************************************

“Heard your case got rough.” Fullbody said sympathetically as Tashigi plopped down at her desk. It was 2pm and she had spent most of the day at Fish Man Island getting files then at her apartment, fitting the images of corpses to the corresponding girls. She was only a quarter of the way through the eighty-nine files.

Except she had another case to deal with at 2pm.

“Child abuse cases are the absolute worst.” Jango agreed and gently rubbed the spot between her shoulder blades. “I don’t blame the kid for offing his dad.”

“Technically there’s no proof besides the videos.” Tashigi sighed. “But it’s a hell of a motive.”

“Smoker let the nanny go this morning because of it. He’s got Koby watching her and Helmeppo’s got eyes on the mom.” Fullbody added. “He’s been filling the crime lab with an angry white cloud ever since.”

Tashigi winced. Smoker was trying his hardest to find physical evidence to back up the theory that Graves killed his father, it was protocol but it still hurt Tashigi to think about arresting the boy.

“I don’t wanna talk about it.” Tashigi groaned. “How’s your cult case going?”

“Just as terrible.” Jango sighed. “The leader is clearly abusing the female members and militarizing the male members. We actually have our own Agent from Federal Sex Crimes coming in today too.”

“Tsuru told you about that did she?” Tashigi asked as she stretched backwards in her chair. Her appointment about the case involved the horrific files on Salazar’s tablet. Tashigi had called the Federal Sex Crimes unit and the Prosecutors office and set up the appointment after she discovered Graves and Dane had run. She’d wanted to establish the extenuating circumstances of the case before she even talked to the boy, just in case.

When child pornography is discovered or there is a case of child sexual abuse is discovered and there is some form of media involved, a federal case is opened. This is to see if the materials were distributed or if there were multiple victims and perpetrators. To discover this information, a trained and certified federal agent, a trained officer, and a trained prosecutor must sit down an view all the material to build the case.

It is a horrific process. To watch innocence be destroyed over and over.

“Tsuru said you requested Momousagi specifically.” Jango said.

“She specializes specifically in child sexual abuse.” Tashigi sighed and took her glasses off. She was getting a slight headache; she needed more coffee. “She’d understand the best why a kid would be driven to kill his father. Put in a professional word to the prosecutor.”

“Who’s the prosecutor?” Fullbody asked.

There was a sudden commotion at the entrance of the bullpen and a crowd of uniformed officers and criminals in cuffs parted for two statuesque women.

“Your ex-girlfriend.” Tashigi smirked as she pushed out of her seat to greet the two women.

“Clementine.” Fullbody breathed reverently.

“Bad.” Jango slapped him with a rolled up newspaper and sprayed him with a water bottle.

Clementine, for her part, only glared at her ex-boyfriend and his best friend.

“Agent Momousagi. Prosecutor Clementine.” Tashigi greeted the two women. “Good to see you.”

Momousagi, also known as Gion, was a slender woman with red lipstick, long curly black hair tied back in a loose pony tail, and a mole beneath her mouth on the right side of her face. She wore a hot pink dress shirt and black slacks.

Tashigi was often reminded of Hina when they met.

Clementine was a broad shouldered and well-muscled woman who’d once been an MMA fighter before transitioning to practicing law. She had mischievous green eyes and red tinted black hair cropped to her chin. Tashigi admired her for how well she managed gentleness and ferocity in the court room.

“Wish it was under better circumstances.” Momousagi said grimly. Tashigi nodded in agreement.

“Tsuru has us set up in a spare interrogation room of cybercrimes on the third floor.” Tashigi said as she lead them out of the bullpen and to the elevators. “With the volume of videos files, we might be there all night.” Momousagi closed her eyes and muttered an oath.

“I’m glad the monster is dead.” She snarled as they stepped in the elevator.

“I agree, however, the case file you sent over was very messy.” Clementine said carefully. “All three have motive and opportunity. With suspects like Kestrel Tilly and Alfonse Nicoletta, my office won’t prosecute the kid unless you get a sighed confession.”

“Understandable.” Tashigi said and rubbed the back of her neck. “I don’t even want to arrest Graves to be honest. I’m trying to get him to come in voluntarily.”

“Tsuru mentioned you haven’t told anyone but Smoker where he is.” Momousagi said as they stepped off at the third floor. All three women inclined their heads at Bogard, the Sargent of cybercrimes, before heading down the hallway to the interrogation room.

“It would complicate things unnecessarily.” Tashigi grimaced. “Suffice to say it has nothing to do with Salazar’s death.”

“Cryptic.” Clementine muttered as they unlocked and pushed open the door to interrogation fifteen. Salazar’s tablet sat in the middle of the metal table, a charging cord connected it to the wall under the two-way glass, in front of it was a thin folder which contained the confirmation paperwork relating to the material on the tablet. Three chairs sat crowded on one-side of the table.

“Alright.” Momousagi put down her bag; Clementine did the same. “Everyone remember that if you get overwhelmed, you must tell us so we can stop the video. The confirmation is only valid if all three of us can attest that it is child pornography.”

The other two women nodded, though both looked ill.

“Once we’re done I’m going to take the tablet as evidence and add the files to the Sex Crimes database, that way if the videos ever pop up on dark sites we can flag and track the distributors.” The dark-haired woman said, then she turned to Tashigi. “After this, even if we don’t see anyone other than Salazar on the videos, I want you to look into who else might be involved in this abuse.”

“You’ve got a point.” Clementine muttered. “Nine years is a long time to go unreported or anyone else being involved.”

“I’ll try to ask Graves when I see him.” Tashigi agreed.

“Then we’re ready.” Momousagi took a deep breath and pulled out a chair. She turned on the unlocked tablet and clicked till she had the correct file.

“I hate that we have to do this even though the guy is dead.” Clementine gritted and took the far seat, leaving Tashigi with the middle chair.

“If it gives Graves a lighter sentence, then we have to.” Tashigi sighed as Momousagi clicked the first video. “But it’s still dreadful.”

***************************************

The paper coffee cup warmed Tashigi’s hand as she walked tiredly onto her street. It was 11am and she, Momousagi, and Clementine had only finished a half-hour ago.

Tashigi was going to have nightmares for weeks. She blocked out most of what she’d seen after sighing the confirmation, but Graves’ terrified face haunted her. The person he was supposed to trust to look after him in this world had violated him unspeakably.

She had no solution to help him. All she could do was convince him that turning himself in was the best choice. Eighteen months was still a long time for a boy would been in his own kind of prison for years.

Tashigi scrubbed under her glasses with one hand. The case was a disaster.

The Strawhats waited by two vehicles in front of Thousand Sunny house. Where they kept their cars Tashigi had no idea, she suspected secret underground garage, but she couldn’t be sure.

She didn’t like how their laughing and chatting stopped at her approach.

She didn’t like that Law was leaning grouchily against Usopp’s acid colored Pop Green muscle car. Luffy perched next to him, unusually still and quiet. Usopp drummed his fingers nervously on the roof of his car. Zoro leaned next to the nervous man, all she could see was the back of his green head.

Sanji stood between Nami and Robin next to Franky’s custom built van, he’d smiled reassuringly at her but Tashigi wasn’t comforted. Chopper shifted skittishly in front of the grill of the van. Franky was by the driver side door. Brook and Jinbe conversed quietly in between Franky’s van and Usopp’s car.

“Morning.” She yawned as she stood in front of them. Huh, they looked concerned.

“Uh, Tashigi-san?” Chopper asked timidly. “When’s the last time you slept?”

Tashigi blinked then looked down at herself. Rumpled and untucked pastel pink dress shirt, equally rumpled grey dress pants with a couple food stains. Her messy black bun drooped to one side and there were chunks of hair escaping everywhere. The bags under her eyes were deep and black-violet now; they give Law’s permanent bags a run for their money.

“Technically, four days ago.” Tashigi said casually and Chopper balked. Zoro’s head turned to look at her and his brows were stormy.

“You need sleep.” Chopper screeched and rushed to her side. He tugged on Tashigi’s arms, trying to get her coffee cup away from her. She let him take it, it was empty anyway.

“No.” Tashigi shook her head. “After the case.” Chopper frowned angrily and Tashigi thought it was the cutest thing, but a little terrifying.

“Tashigi,” Nami said gently, approaching her too, and placed a hand on Tashigi’s shoulder, “We can do this another day. Ace will understand.” Tashigi could appreciate the orange-haired woman’s caring approach, Nami was usually a more demanding woman.

“Sorry, Nami-san.” Tashigi said. “But I need to keep my word. Besides Smoker only gave me a time limit. If I don’t bring Graves in by the end of told then Smoker is going after him with a warrant”

“Damn, Smoke-bro doesn’t joke around.” Franky huffed as he leaned against his navy blue van.

“One must ask, Detective-san,” Robin said in her calm and academic tone, “why you didn’t take that sort of route in the first place?”

“Same reason I only told one person that he was hiding out in Whitebeard territory.” Tashigi sighed and rolled the tension in her shoulders. “It prevents unnecessary complications.”

There was a shift in the Strawhats, like they released a large amount of tension from their shoulders collectively.

“Well,” Luffy said slightly more cheerful, “what are we waiting for? Let’s go see Ace! Tashi you can ride with me, ’kay?” He hopped off the hood and slid into the passenger seat.

“Ah, okay, Luffy-san.” Tashigi said nervously and approached the acid green car. She’d be in the car with two people she didn’t really want to interact with. Law’s words still stung, even if Zoro had told her to ‘fuck his opinion’. Zoro, she was having trouble looking him in the eye without remembering vividly the almost kiss.

She ended up sandwiched in the back seat between them.

Tashigi chewed her nails as she forced her eyes to look straight ahead. She hadn’t been this nervous since Marineford; her cuticles had been a bloody mess after those three months.

Why was she nervous anyway?

Oh because she was in the middle of an awful case, which had upended whatever she had with the Strawhats and accelerated whatever complex feelings she held for Zoro. Plus she was seated next to a man who denied to help her on another awful case and insinuated she was a bad detective.

Staying up through the night and drinking twelve cups of coffee didn’t help.

If there was more room in the car, she’d be pacing.

“Your grip on your sword is gonna be shit tomorrow, Glasses.” Zoro grumbled as her reached over in the cramped space and pulled her fingers from her mouth. “If you keep doing that.” He dropped her hand in her lap.

“Oh? We’re actually going to cross swords tomorrow?” Tashigi scoffed and pinned her hands between her knees.

“Only if you actually get enough sleep, space cadet.”

“Tashi, you’ve been to space?” Luffy whipped eagerly around in the passenger seat. Zoro snickered as Tashigi pinched the bridge of her nose under her glasses.

“I think what Swordsman-ya is saying, Strawhat-ya, is Detective-ya has been rather absentminded lately.” Law said with a deep and long-suffering sigh through his nose.

“That’s not as cool.” Luffy pouted. “Are you sure, Traffy?”

“Oh my gods, why am I here?” Law muttered and put his head in his hands.

“Tra-guy is sure, Luff.” Usopp laughed as he whipped around a curve, following Franky’s van. “Say Tashigi? Does your space cadet-ness happen to be related to those, what’d you call ‘em? Oh, yeah, Gone Crackers boards?”

“You’re too smart for your own good, Usopp-san.” Tashigi sighed as she felt her face heat. “But you are partially correct.”

“That was the best crazy person room I’ve ever seen and I’ve made a few of my own.” Usopp laughed.

“It’s not crazy, it’s police work.”

“Are we talking about the room in Tashi’s house with all the boards and pictures?” Luffy asked.

“Yes.” Zoro smirked.

“Oh, yeah, that’s nuts.”

“Oh holy meito, why have you forsaken me?” Tashigi muttered as she put her head in her hands. “All of you, all of you enjoy tormenting me.”

“You make it way too easy.” Zoro chuckled.

“I do not.” Tashigi harrumphed.

“I agree with Swordsman-ya.” Law snickered. “You do.”

Tashigi scrunched her nose and pursed her lips. She had a million arguments loaded in her mouth.

“We’re here.” Luffy cried and Usopp parked.

Tashigi gulped. Whitebeard territory, or what was left of it.

Before his death, Edward “Whitebeard” Newgate had the largest territory in Grandline City. His reach also previously extended to New World Provinces. He’d also had one of the safest territories in the entire city.

Whitebeard had set up systems of crime reduction and civilian protection in his territories. If he couldn’t trust the police, he’d make his own. The most impressive part of this was the Whitebeard Firehouse system. Arson was a frequent tool of rival gangs seeking to destroy assets and cripple gang structure.

Tashigi stood anxiously in front of the yawning mouth of the very first Firehouse Whitebeard ever built. Firehouse Zero was out of commission, evidenced by the lack of fire trucks and presence of couches scattered throughout the garage.

Both garage doors of the firehouse were rolled up to expose the interior to the street. Tashigi could see Graves and Dane seated close together on a dark blue couch in the middle of the garage. Around them were the beefy and glaring Sons of Whitebeard, well those that had survived the territory wars with Blackbeard, Edward Weevil, Big Mom, and Kaido. More Whitebeard gangsters casually littered the street.

The Strawhats, plus Law—why was he even there?—had parked at the entrance of the street and walked to the firehouse located in the middle of the street. The Strawhats had greeted Whitebeard members cheerfully. Tashigi with Shigure, gun, and badge on display had respectfully stood back in the middle of the road. Graves stared at her from inside and she smiled shakily.

Portgas D. Ace hugged his brother tightly, lifting him off the ground.

The last time Tashigi had seen Ace was Marineford and, before he’d been covered in blood, she remembered a broad tanned man. He’d become thinner, cheeks hollow under freckles and paler. Hair shaggier and 5 o’clock shadow across his face. Then again, the man had been hospitalized for two years and in physical therapy for the other.

His Whitebeard brothers also never let him leave Whitebeard territory for fear of police retaliation—at least that’s what G-5 gang intelligence reported. Any man would look different after such an ordeal.

Isuka had detailed exactly the information Tashigi was allowed to tell Ace. Nothing about just what they’d done and nothing about her feelings. Tashigi was to make it into professional guilt only. She was immensely grateful that her friend hadn’t been furious, then again, Isuka was a woman dedicated to the job too.

“Tashi?” Tashigi jerked out of her thoughts and found the two black-haired men looking at her. Luffy hadn’t spoken. It had been Ace.

“Ah, don’t mind Tashi, Ace.” Luffy grinned. “She just hasn’t slept in four days.” Ace’s eyebrows crawled into his hair.

“Medically this trip is ill-advised.” Chopper shouted from behind her.

“I’m fine, Chopper-kun.” Tashigi called over her shoulder. “I’m Detective Shoi Tashigi of the G-5.” She held out her hand professionally and Ace shook it skeptically. “I would like to talk to Graves.”

“You’re a professional.” Ace chuckled. “Reminds me of a friend I used to have.” He got a very faraway look in his eyes. “Well, Graves said he’d talk to you. But I want my information first.” His sunny grin turned hungry and gleeful.

A tall man with a puff of blond hair on his head coughed behind Ace. Marco the Phoenix. Tashigi gulped, the blond bespectacled man was the current head of the Whitebeard gang. She had to tread lightly.

“Oh, right.” Ace pouted. “Marco requested that he, Izo, and I be allowed to sit in on your talk with Graves.” A man with his long black hair worn half up, half down and a scar over his right eye stepped forward, his pink and purple kimono rustling, and handed her a business card. Izo of Wano Province. Tashigi wisely restrained herself from asking all her burning questions about the formerly isolated province and read the card.

“You’re a lawyer.” Tashigi said nervously.

“I’ve offered to represent Graves.” Izo said seriously. “He’s our little brother after all.”

“So he has agreed to let you three sit in on our conversation?” Tashigi asked pointedly.

“We look after our little brother.” Marco spoke up. “We protect him from people who want to wrongly arrest him for a crime.”

“Graves hasn’t told you anything.” Tashigi rubbed her forehead. The three men shared uneasy glances and shook their head. “Well, if he hasn’t said anything, neither will I. When it comes down to it, if he asks you to leave at any point then I want you to do so. I will not compromise his comfort for your curiosity. Am I clear?” Tashigi finished firmly.

The three taller men looked startled and nodded vigorously. Luffy smiled widely.

“Shishishi.” He giggled. “I knew you cared, Tashi. Not gonna lie though, I was worried there. I thought you were going to arrest a kid.” Tashigi raised her brows in surprise at his megawatt smile. “She’s a good police lady, Ace.” Luffy told his brother.

Tashigi, deeply touched, placed a hand to her chest.

“Thank you, Luffy-san.” She said, a little choked up. “That means a lot.”

“Huh? Why?” The young man cocked his head.

“Fucking hells.” Tashigi looked over her shoulder. Zoro stood behind her. He’d been talking to Vista previously. “This is gonna take all day if you get Glasses crying. Ace, didn’t you have a question or whatever?”

“So impatient, Roronoa.” Tashigi puffed out her cheeks and glared at the man over her shoulder. “Got some important naps to take or something?”

“No, but you do.” He smirked. “Chopper told me personally that he’s going to put you in a medically induced coma if you don’t lie down soon.”

“I’m fine.” Tashigi scoffed and stepped forward. Because the universe hated her, Tashigi’s ankle gave out sideways. Zoro gripped her shoulders from behind before she could collapse.

“Sure.” He drawled skeptically. “Fine.” Tashigi pouted up at him.

“Um.” Ace coughed and Tashigi looked at him, waving Zoro’s hands off. “My information?” He patted his hands together eagerly, like a child. “Why didn’t Isuka email me back?”

There was collective groan from the Whitebeard gangsters.

Tashigi suppressed a soft smile.

“She feels guilty.”

“Well that’s stupid.” Ace scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Why would she feel guilty?”

“She was there, Ace-san.” Tashigi said softly. “We both were. On the steps of the Justice building that day.” Ace looked stricken. “Isuka is a dedicated police officer, but she is also your friend. She feels guilty because she didn’t stop you from getting shot and for not protesting more when they wouldn’t let her testify to your innocence.”

“She tried to testify?” Ace said quietly and Tashigi nodded. As close to the truth as Isuka would let her tell. “I wish she would’ve told me.”

“Guilt makes people do funny things.” Tashigi smiled to herself. “I don’t sleep and Isuka runs away. It’s been like that since we were in high school.”

“I know you have some serious business here today and that after Chopper is probably going to force you to sleep for three days,” Ace said evenly. “But at some point I want to hear about how Isuka is doing.”

“I will do my best, Ace-san.”

“You can go in now.” Marco said and led her into the firehouse. Izo and Ace followed. The Whitebeard gangsters in the garage filed out at a nod from Marco. Tashigi shifted nervously as they passed her and glanced reflexively over her shoulder, she was looking for Smoker as her Sargent had always had her back when she was nervous on the job, instead she found the Strawhats crowded around the large bay doors.

The same reassuring flood of warmth that came with Smoker’s grouchy, looming presence filled her sternum. Zoro had been right the night of the party. Even if Tashigi didn’t believe it and even if the situation she was in made her ‘the enemy’; they would have her back. They considered her a friend.

Tashigi sat down delicately on the sagging brown couch across from Graves and Dane. She watched him carefully as Marco, Izo, and Ace pulled up chairs. He tensed.

Dane looked up at his brother. Concern knitted his brow. Then he gazed around at the three older men.

“Dane.” Tashigi said kindly and the boy turned his gaze to her. “Do you mind if I speak to your brother alone?”

“The last time you said that we ran away.” Dane said seriously. “What’s going to happen this time?”

“I promise you, nothing bad will happen again.” She matched his seriousness.

“It’s okay, D.” Graves reassured his little brother. “I trust her.” He held Tashigi’s eyes.

Dane fidgeted briefly before he stood, brushed his robin’s egg blue hair from his eyes, and headed towards the bay doors.

“If you ask the long-nosed man he’ll tell you the best lie you’ve ever heard.” Tashigi called over her shoulder. The boy paused , then changed his trajectory toward Usopp. She turned back to Graves, his brow was quirked. “You once told me your brother wasn’t that quiet. I figured he should be with someone who’d get him talking again.”

“You really do care.” Graves said roughly. “Thought you were just pretending to be nice to get me to trip up.”

“Did you know that the type of sword style I practice is a Gentle Blade type?” Tashigi said conversationally. “My Sargent says that it’s transferred to my investigating techniques. He says that you can’t stop a blade you don’t know is there.”

“I remember him.” Graves smiled weakly. “He seemed like a man to think that way.”

“Funnily enough,” Tashigi chuckled, “it’s one of the greatest compliments he’s ever given me. I suppose it makes me a strange one.” The tension eased out of Graves shoulder’s as he snorted in humor. Tashigi glanced at Marco, Izo, and Ace, who all looked slightly confused. “Tell me something, Graves, why do you trust me?”

“You told me my opinion mattered.” He half smiled. “Nobody cares about a high school kid’s opinion, or any kid’s opinion really, but the way you said it didn’t feel like a lie. You actually wanted to know who I thought…you know.” He shifted uncomfortably. “You didn’t just want me to parrot back who you wanted it to be.”

“Graves,” Tashigi said carefully, “do you want your, ah, brothers, to leave?”

“Tashi.” Ace said in warning. Did he have to pick up his brother’s nickname for her?

“They’re okay.” Graves gulped. “I’m okay.”

“Then why haven’t you told them I suspect that you murdered your father?” Tashigi asked in a gentle even tone. Graves squeezed his eyes shut. A sharp intake of breath came from Izo.

“Because he’s not my father here.” Graves said shakily. “Whitebeard is my father.”

“And when did you start considering Whitebeard your father?” Tashigi asked.

“About four years ago.” He answered proudly. “I tried running away from home with Dane, but he was only four at the time so he was crying for Nic and Tilly a lot. Next thing I know, Whitebeard himself is standing above me saying he can help with Dane.” He looked down contemplatively. “Only Tilly could get him to stop crying, but Whitebeard had him babbling in ten minutes. He told me Dane was too young to be without his mother, but I could stay if I wanted.” His voice trailed off.

“But you didn’t.” Tashigi said sadly. She knew what had happen to him upon his return.

“I couldn’t leave Dane. Not in that house.” Graves whispered. “But I visited, whenever I could. This is Dane’s first time back though, Tilly kept him close after the first time.”

“Did you ever tell Whitebeard about what was happening?” Tashigi asked as delicately as possible. The three older men clearly didn’t know and she wasn’t going to expose it unless Graves said it himself.

“No.” Graves’ voice was firm, but watery. “He wouldn’t have understood.”

“He would’ve understood that your father was hurting you.”

“No. No.” Graves gasped and shook his head, clutched his knees. “No one could understand. No one had, no one will.” Tashigi heard his breathing shallow.

“It’s okay. It’s okay, kiddo.” Tashigi soothed and stood, crossed to Graves, sat on the coffee table in front of the blue couch. “Deep In. Deep Out.” She ordered tenderly and rubbed Graves’ shoulder.

He nodded and sucked in shakily before exhaling evenly.

Tashigi did it with him until his breathing steadied and calmed.

“What do you mean no one had believed you before?” Tashigi asked softly as Graves inhaled and exhaled repeatedly.

“I had just turned thirteen.” Graves said weakly. “I did some research on the internet because I knew what my father w-was…doing to me wasn’t right. Even though he said…h-he’d hurt me more, I went to the police.” Tashigi’s jaw clenched. “Two officers came to my house, talked t-to father, then left. They did nothing and it got worse.” Graves’ voice cracked.

Tashigi kept her breathing even. She had to focus on Graves. Marco, Ace, and Izo were shifting unhappily in their positions. Like her, the revelation about the two officers made them upset.

“I ran away a couple days after.” Graves said after he’d composed himself again. “Because no one can understand. No one.”

Tashigi looked at the lines of pain constricting Graves’ face.

Isuka had once asked her why she talked so candidly about discovering her mother’s body, even though she could never enter the forge or told so few about her parent’s deaths. Yet once someone knew, Tashigi had no problem expressing herself.

Tashigi had told her that the pain of keeping it to herself had almost driven her mad. Isuka had a public scar from the fire that killed her parent’s. Her trauma was the first thing people asked about. Tashigi’s scar was in her head. Memories of her mother’s body no one could see from the outside. Her emotions built up until she couldn’t take it anymore.

After a semipublic meltdown, state mandated therapy was a benefit.

Speaking things into the air was hard, but necessary.

“Did you know that in child pornography cases someone has to watch the videos beginning to end so they can testify about it in court to seal a conviction, or a motive.” Tashigi said quietly and Graves flinched.

“I don’t want to talk about it.” He whispered.

“It’ll kill you if you don’t.” Tashigi said firm, but soothing. “Someone needs to know what your dad did to you.” Sharp intakes of breath from the three Whitebeard men.

“Wait? What?” Marco said roughly. “Graves was your dad—”

“Leave.” Graves shouted. “Please leave.”

“Okay, Detective,” Izo said and stood, to lead Tashigi away, “you need to—”

“No.” Graves ground out. “You. The three of you. Leave. Please.”

“Graves—” Ace began and Graves shook his head. Tashigi hadn’t moved from her seat on the coffee table.

“I want to talk to Detective Tashigi alone.”

They reluctantly walked to the curious crowd at the firehouse garage doors.

Tashigi and Graves were left in silence.

“You watched the videos?” He stuttered in a whisper.

“Me, a federal agent, and a lawyer.” Tashigi answered.

“Why?” He whimpered.

“To establish the extenuating circumstances of the crime.” Tashigi said softly. “To open a federal case to discover if any other parties were involved or if the videos were distributed. To prove to the prosecutor’s office that while it was premeditated, it could be considered self-defense.”

“You,” Graves swallowed hard, “You were looking out for me. You knew I killed my dad and you looked out for me.”

“If you give a full confession down at the police station, then given your cooperation and the circumstances then most the DA will go for is eighteen months in a juvenile facility.” Tashigi told him. “I have a prosecutor who swears she won’t prosecute you without a confession.”

“Then why should I turn myself in?” Graves asked faintly.

“Because you’re a good kid, who likes his nanny and loves his brother.” Tashigi inhaled slowly before she continued. “If you don’t give a confession, the DA will demand we charge Tilly.” Graves closed his eyes in anguish. “Or Sargent Smoker will hunt for any physical evidence you left behind and you’ll get 25 to life in Impel Down.”

Graves pressed his lips together and put his head in his hands. Tashigi watched as he took deep calming breaths and rubbed his hands fretfully through ash blond hair.

“Okay.” He muttered to himself. “Okay.” He said more firmly and looked up at her. “But I wanna tell you the truth. I’ll say something different in the actual confession.”

“You have to tell the whole truth.” Tashigi said, shaking her head.

“You don’t understand.” Graves gasped anxiously. “People are going to read that confession. In court they’ll—they’ll read it or—or—” Graves sucked in a deep breath. “Neither Nic or Tilly can know the reason why I did it. Dane can’t find out either.”

“The abuse was not your fault.” Tashigi said firmly. “Your family will understand.”

Graves shook his head forcefully.

“That’s not why I decided to kill my father.” Graves released a shuddering breath. “He…He…” Graves’ mouth twisted and his jaw clenched. “He said that I was getting t-too old. That it wasn’t f-fun anymore.” He gritted his teeth. Tears slid down his face.

Tashigi felt her jaw tremble and she pressed her lips together to maintain composure.

“He said at the eighth birthday party, it’d be fun again.” Graves continued, his voice was dissolving into tears.

The eighth birthday party? What the—Oh. Oh.

“He was going to go after Dane.” Tashigi whispered.

Graves fisted his hands against his eyes and sucked in a ragged breath. His tears were evident streaks on his face and still coming down.

“It started on my eight birthday too.” He sobbed. “That night I took Tilly’s car and drove back to the city. I knew about Nic’s bag of pills and I’d found Tilly’s file where she hid her stash. I took the nitroglycerin from the bag and hid it in the kitchen before I left. I made sure the back door was unlocked too. He always took a call from Mr. Myers at 11, so when he did I went into the living room and broke half the bottle of capsules into his glass. Then I just left, drove back, and waited.”

Tashigi placed her hands comfortingly on his trembling shoulders.

“I just wanted it to stop with me.” He looked up pleadingly at Tashigi. “I just wanted it to stop with me.” He lurched forward and buried his face into Tashigi’s shoulder.

Tashigi rocked back slightly, but wrapped her arms around the crying boy.

She adjusted carefully, moving to sit next to him on the couch. She rubbed his back gently and repeated soothingly: “It’s okay. It’s all over. It’s okay.” Graves soaked the shoulder and collar of Tashigi’s rumpled shirt as he wailed.

He’d done it all to protect his brother.

Tashigi folded her lips inward and blinked rapidly, clearing tears. She pulled the crying teenager closer and patted his hair. A bright screen on the couch caught her eye.

Hidden half under Graves was a phone.

With a call connected out to Alfonse Nicoleta.

Carefully Tashigi reached around Graves and snatched it up. The running time indicated it had been connected for the entire conversation. But Graves’ phone was in evidence.

Tashigi glanced to the side where a group of concerned gangsters and one almost eight-year-old boy stood. It was Dane’s phone. Graves protected him and in return, he tried to protect Graves.

She ended the call.

Tashigi gently pulled Graves off her shoulder and whipped his cheeks and chin with the cuff of her sleeve. He hiccupped a few times and sniffed thickly, but the tears slowly stopped.

“We should go to the station now.” She said kindly. “Putting it off will only be harder.”

Graves nodded and scrubbed his face with the hem of his shirt.

“I’m ready.” He sniffed and stood.

Tashigi walked him through the garage with a delicate hand on his back.

They stopped at the crowd of anxious gangsters.

“Graves has agreed to come to the station willingly.” Tashigi said firmly. Disgruntled noises erupted from the Whitebeard gangsters.

“I cannot advise he do that.” Izo stated.

“It’s okay.” Graves coughed as her cleared the mucus from his throat. “I’ve got Detective Tashigi looking out for me.” He smiled weakly at her and Tashigi smiled softly back.

Zoro’s eye widened.

“That might be enough for you, but in my experience a cop—” Marco began.

“She’s a good detective.” Zoro grunted, staring at Tashigi hard. “When she looks out for you, it is with the fullest effort. The kid will be safe.”

Tashigi nodded.

“If anything happens to him…” Ace trailed off aggressively.

“I will take full responsibility.” Tashigi matched his hard gaze.

“Why don’t I take you and your brother to the van?” Nami offered helpfully and waved for the crowd to part.

It did so reluctantly.

Before Dane could follow his brother Tashigi held the phone in front of his face. He looked up at her with wide fearful eyes. Tashigi simply shrugged. He grabbed the phone and chased after his brother.

Tashigi took several moments to calm herself in the sea of gangsters. Her gentle side had just about run out and she needed to stop herself from madly charging off in search of the offending parties. The two officers who took the report four years ago. They would fall at her hands.

Lips twitching into an animalistic snarl, Tashigi yanked her phone out of her pocket and dialed Koby.

“Koby.” She demanded forcefully when he picked up and the man yelped on the other side.

“Yes?” He stuttered.

“I need you to find a report for me.” Tashigi ordered as she strode purposefully after the boys. “Graves contacted the police about his father four years ago.”

“What do you want from it?” Tashigi heard frantic scrambling in the background.

“I want the officers who responded and when you find them I want you to tear their lives apart. Bank records, phone records, professional lives, and personal lives. Get me everything and get them at my desk today.” She growled. 

“Okay. Okay. Where should I look?”

“Search the G-5 closed reports in the basement. If they aren’t there got to G-4, G-3, G-2, and G-1, get Helmeppo to help you. If they aren’t there then check the basement file rooms of One Police Plaza.” Tashigi seethed. “And tell Momousagi that I have suspects she can charge in her federal case. Get her to my desk too.”

“Got it. Got it.” Koby stuttered. “Hey, Tashigi?”

“Yes?”

“What are you going to do when I get the officers here?”

“Oh.” Tashigi chuckled darkly. “I’m going to teach them a lesson in professionalism.”

************************

The bullpen roared with chaos. Over fifty screaming people with shaved heads and matching beige feed sack shirts and pants yelled at the officers corralling them.

Jango and Fullbody had busted the cult.

“Er,” Tashigi coughed awkwardly as Graves and Dane gaped at the crowd, “as you know, it’s not normally like this.”

“It’s alright.” Graves rasped, throat still rough from crying. “It’s kinda fun.”

Tashigi was glad he could still smile. The van ride back with the Strawhats had lightened his mood considerably and he’d been rather forlorn when Tashigi ordered the Strawhats to return home. Then again, so had the Strawhats.

“Graves! Dane!” Kestrel Tilly cried as she pushed through the irate cult members. Smoker, chewing two cigars in the corner of his mouth, followed closely behind. “Thank goodness you’re okay.” She hugged them both tightly. “But Nicoleta has confessed to your father’s murder.”

“What?” Tashigi and Graves gasped. Dane started crying. Tilly crouched to comfort him.

“Sir?” Tashigi turned to her superior in confusion. He’d agreed with her previously that Graves had killed his father.

“She came in ten minutes ago and confessed.” He rumbled. “Prosecutor Clementine is on her way over to take the case.”

“But I—” Graves began but Tashigi held up a quieting hand.

“Is she allowing anyone to see her?” Tashigi asked. Her superior never did anything without reason. He took Nicoleta’s confession with a purpose.

“You can speak with her.” Smoker said. “Five minutes only. Interrogation room One.” Tashigi nodded and turned to Graves.

“Just sit tight.” She whispered. “I’m going to see what’s going on.”

Tashigi inclined her head to Smoker and shoved though the crowd of cultists to the interrogation rooms.

Alfonse Nicoleta sat calmly at the metal table. The nervous nail picking and bloodshot eyes were gone. Her powder blue hair was freshly curled and pulled in a high ponytail; clothes pressed and neat. A woman who got herself together for the end.

“Nicoleta.” Tashigi said uncertainly. Her confession was stacked neatly in front of the other empty chair, waiting for Tashigi’s signature.

“Detective Shoi.” The older woman said pleasantly. “How are my boys?”

“A little shocked that you’ve confessed.” Tashigi said as she sat across from her.

“They would be. It’s quiet hard when you discover that your mother killed your father.”

“Nicoleta,” Tashigi said calmly, “No one is listening. The recorder is off and no one is behind the glass. You can tell me the truth.”

“It is the truth.” Nicoleta insisted. “I’ll even tell you why and how.”

“Nicoleta—”

“Listen, listen.” Nicoleta said pleadingly and Tashigi shut her mouth. “I was upset he was leaving me. I got my pills from Doctor Calvins and I was a little out of it. I just wanted to know why. There’s an old service road out the back behind Cecile’s. I took it and returned to the city. The Nitroglycerin was on my passenger seat, it must’ve fallen out of the bag I’d returned to Doctor Calvins. I was holding it so it wouldn’t roll off the seat.”

“What’d you do when you got to the house?” Tashigi asked.

“He was having his evening drink when I walked into the living room.” She said softly. “He asked why I was there. I asked why he was divorcing me. He said it was because of my habit, that it was bad for his image. Then he said he’d use my pill addiction to gain full custody of the boys.”

“Did you know at the time that he was…” Tashigi trailed off. She knew Nicoleta confessed because of the conversation she’d overheard on the phone Dane left behind.

“I didn’t. No.” Nicoleta swallowed hard. “Had I know I would’ve killed him sooner.”

“So what’d you do?” Tashigi asked. “After he told you that.”

“He got a call. Mr. Myers.” She rattled off. “He went into his study and I still had the bottle of nitroglycerin. I ripped the cap off and broken half the capsules into his glass. Then I just left.”

“And the nitroglycerin? We never found the bottle.”

“You know what they say, everything hides in the Redline.” Nicoleta chuckled weakly.

“Tossed it in the river.” Tashigi sighed. “Why are you doing this, Nicoleta?”

“I’m not a very good mother.” Nicoleta admitted sadly and laced her fingers together. “I can’t do a lot of things for those boys, but this I can do.”

“Nicoleta, he’d only ever do eighteen months in a juvie facility.”

“But he’d be known for the rest of his life as the boy who killed his father.”

“The circumstances—”

“No one cares about the circumstances, Detective Shoi.” Nicoleta said regrettably. “Only the end result. And in the end I killed my husband and that is what the world will get to know.”

Tashigi sat silently. The universe, with all its contradictions, was extending an olive branch to her on this case. She’d lost sleep over the fate of Alfonse Graves and here was Nicoleta offering a better fate voluntarily.

“And you’re okay will going to prison for twenty-five to life?” She asked.

“For my son? Absolutely.”

“But he’s not your son.”

“I’ve never thought of it that way.”

There was nothing Tashigi could do. Alfonse Nicoleta had made her decision.

The bespectacled detective picked up the pen and sighed off on Alfonse Nicoleta’s confession.

“Thank you, Detective.” Nicoleta said gratefully. “Tell Tilly to take good care of them.”

Tashigi nodded mutely and left Interrogation One.

She passed Clementine in the hall and they inclined their heads to each other silently. Clementine had said she wouldn’t prosecute Graves without a confession.

Graves tilted his head questioningly as Tashigi returned.

“I have accepted Nicoleta’s confession to the murder of her husband.” She said carefully. Graves’ eyes widened in horror and he opened his mouth. Tashigi shook her head.

“Then this case is done.” Smoker stated firmly. “The three of you may leave.” He threw Tashigi a significant look before he returned to his desk.

“I’ll walk you out.” Tashigi sighed.

There was a tense silence as they crossed the lobby.

“Why’d you let her do that?” Graves asked hoarsely as they descended the steps of the precinct. Tilly had a firm hand on his shoulder.

“Because it’s what your stepmother wanted to do for you.” Tashigi said carefully and waved Tilly and Dane off down the steps to Tilly’s car. “I can’t articulate the specifics of her reasoning. You’ll have to ask her yourself one day.” Graves looked stricken. “Don’t feel guilty. She made this choice herself and I tried to talk to her about it, but she was determined.”

“I have to thank her.” The teenager mumbled. “I have to do something.”

“Here’s what you can do, for me, your stepmother, and yourself.” Tashigi said firmly. “You can live a good life. Become a good person who protects what they love, but never use these tactics again. Smoker will be watching if you do.” Graves’ eyes widened at her severe tone. “Tilly is your guardian now, so I think you should talk to her about what happened and if you can’t talk to her, then talk to one of your Whitebeard brothers, and if you can’t even talk to them,” she pulled her business card from her pocket, “then talk to me. But you can’t bottle it up.” He nodded understandingly.

“Thanks, Detective.”

“Call me Tashigi, kiddo.”

She led him down the steps to Tilly’s car. Dane was already sitting inside, but the lilac-haired woman stood by the car. Graves got in the car and Tashigi was left outside with Tilly.

“I have a question to ask you, Miss. Kestrel.” Tashigi said seriously. “And I want to preface this by reminding you that anything you say will stay between us. Twenty years ago, did you kill your father?”

Tilly blanched. Tashigi maintained eye contact unblinkingly.

“Yes.” She whispered after a few moments. “He was abusive and I didn’t think I was going to survive two more years until I was eighteen.”

“Tell this to Graves.” Tashigi said and Tilly blinked rapidly in surprise. “He needs to know he’s not alone.” Tilly nodded.

“Any other advice?” Tilly asked quietly.

“Sell that house.” Tashigi sighed. “Graves shouldn’t have to go back there again.”

“You’re a good cop, Detective Shoi.” Tilly mumbled. “I wish you’d been there twenty years ago.”

“I’m glad you think so,” Tashigi exhaled sharply, “It doesn’t often feel like it.”

Tashigi returned to the precinct.

Smoker was furiously creating a haze at his desk.

“Why’d you do that, Sir?” Tashigi asked as she waved smoke out of her face. “You could’ve blown Nicoleta’s confession wide open with one look at the city security cameras.”

“She was very insistent and refused to wait.” He grumbled. “Besides, the way I see it, Graves has suffered enough for one life time, best not to condemn him to another kind of prison.”

“If you don’t mind me saying, Sir, that’s a little unusual for you.”

“Did I ever tell you that I knew your father?” Smoker mused quietly.

Tashigi nodded. He’d mentioned it only once, when they were on Grandline Highway patrol. Tashigi had been too nervous and shocked to ask for more details, when the older man had mentioned he’d been to an out-of-the-way town with her father years ago back when he was chasing her mother’s killers, that she hadn’t pressed.

“When I was a beat cop, your father was a secondary on a shooting in Loguetown, mind you this was back when it was still a bad place to live in the East Blue.” Smoker growled softly. “A fifteen-year-old girl had shot her pimp and a John. To his primary it was open, then shut. Didn’t matter that she was fifteen and that she’d been forced to work the streets by her pimp since she was thirteen.”

“Did they prosecute her as a minor?”

“Nope. Your father’s primary insisted they prosecute her as an adult, cited her as a public menace.” Smoker blew smoke out the corner of his mouth. “I searched for weeks with your father against his superiors orders to find anything to prove that there were extenuating circumstances to her crime, but nothing.”

“What happened?”

“She’s still serving life in Loguetown prison. Your father used go to every parole hearing and testify to her good character and every year they’d cite the years old police report. Because it’s not about the circumstances, it’s about the end result.”

Nicoleta had said the same thing. Had Smoker told her that?

“I am a man of justice.” Smoker said. “And what that case taught me, despite your father’s best efforts, is that sometimes justice doesn’t follow the rules. Tell me, detective, was justice served today?”

Tashigi considered it. At the end of the day a monster was dead and a mother had protected her son the only way she believed she could. Graves had discovered a support system though the ordeal. The likelihood of it happening again was low.

“Yes.” She had firm eye contact with him. “I do.”

“Good. Glad we’re on the same page.” Smoker grumbled. “Oh, Koby and Helmeppo had to go to Sabaody 47 for this case apparently, picking up two officers on your orders. They left this file behind for you.” He tossed the file down on his desk. “Some very damning information in there.”

Tashigi picked up the file and flipped it open. Two officer profiles with attached bank records. Koby had highlighted a deposit made into both men’s accounts four years ago. Each deposit was for 500,000 Beri.

“Looks like there’s still some justice left to serve.” She muttered.

“Go get ‘em, Detective.”

*******************

“Um, Detective Shoi?” Tashigi looked up. She was finishing the paperwork on the Alfonse case. Two nervous looking officers stood by her desk. Koby and Helmeppo had taken two hours to get them down to the G-5.

“Officer Echo,” the shaggy brown-haired man bobbed his head apprehensively, “Officer Nero,” the forest green-haired man frowned stiffly, “why don’t you two have a seat?”

“What’s this about?” Officer Nero asked as he took one of the chairs Tashigi had positioned by her desk earlier.

“This is about a report you two responded to four years ago.” She said professionally. “A report filed by Alfonse Graves about his father, Salazar.”

The tension bled from their shoulders.

“Oh,” Officer Echo laughed, “we thought this was about something serious.” The two men shared relieved smiles. Tashigi counted backward from ten in her head to cool her bubbling rage.

“It is serious.” Tashigi said, teeth bared. “He accused his father of sexually abusing him.”

“Look, I’m sure you’re a very by the book detective.” Officer Nero said patronizingly. “And this is just routine, but if the kid has filed a report again just ask the dad to explain it.”

“Oh? And how did he explain it four years ago?”

“He’d cut the kid off from his allowance.” Officer Echo scoffed. “So the brat decided to file a false report to scare his dad into paying it again.”

“Kinda devious for a thirteen-year-old, don’t you think?” Tashigi hissed slightly.

“He struck me as a stuck up brat.” Officer Nero shrugged. “Dad was polite and respectable, so we just let it go.”

“That’s against protocol.” Tashigi stated. “And do you know what else is against protocol? Accepting bribes for looking the other way.” Tashigi placed the financial records in front of them.

They gulped.

“Hey, woah, that wasn’t a bribe, Mr. Alfonse just wanted to show his appreciation for our good service.” Office Echo defended and Tashigi shook her head.

“That appreciation extend to you two suddenly getting transferred to Sabaody at the end of that year?” Tashigi asked. “Because we all know no one gets out of the G-5 without _someone_ putting a good word in.”

“He said we were wasted talent in the G-5.” Office Nero said anxiously.

“No, he wanted you two out of the way so he could continue abusing his son.” Tashigi said harshly. Momousagi appeared in the entry way to the bullpen.

“What are you talking about?” Officer Echo shifted in his seat.

Tashigi pulled out Salazar’s tablet, pressed play on the selected video, and turned it toward the seated men.

She stopped once they turned white with horrified realization.

“Oh my gods.” Officer Echo gasped.

“Listen, if we had known, we wouldn’t have done—” Officer Nero stuttered.

“What you should have done,” Tashigi interrupted, “is your jobs. If you’d done that, you wouldn’t be in this situation.”

“What situation?” Officer Nero asked as Momousagi and two other female agents approached the officers from behind.

“Officers Echo and Nero, I hereby charge you with child endangerment, contributing to the creation of child pornography, and accepting a bribe.” Momousagi said seriously and the two other agents lifted the pair out of their chairs and cuffed them.

The men gaped like fish as they were led out of the bullpen. Tashigi could hear them start shouting in the lobby.

“Not as satisfying as arresting the monster who actually hurt Graves.” Momousagi sighed. “But at least we can hold them responsible for ignoring a child in distress. Thanks for the call.” She patted Tashigi’s shoulder and followed her agents out.

Tashigi blew hair deeply from her nose and rolled her shoulders. The case was finally closed. She needed sleep.

“Tashigi-san.” Hina’s delicate hand came down on her shoulder. “Hina wishes to know if you’re okay?”

“Yes, Hina-san, just tired. I think I’m going to head home early and get some sleep.”

“That is the first time Hina has heard you say that in three years.” Hina said with amusement. “Hina thinks Tashigi-san is growing up.” She tucked some loose hairs behind Tashigi’s ear and brushed wrinkles out of Tashigi’s collar.

“I’m already grown up.” Tashigi pouted as she brushed Hina’s fixing hands from adjusting her entire wardrobe.

“Hina will believe that when you stop acting like the big grumpy workaholic Hina is dating.” She glanced lovingly yet exasperatedly at the white-haired man at his desk.

“I’m not grumpy.” Tashigi protested.

“Hina will agree, you are not.” Hina laughed.

“How was your serial?”

“Hina finally caught him after two years.”

“That’s great, Hina-san.” Tashigi said happily as she packed her stuff. “I heard the G-2 helped you a ton.”

“Oh yes, Hina was partnered with Detective Gregor Balthazar.” Hina smiled mischievously and Tashigi felt a cold sweat break out on her neck. “Hina found him very handsome and intelligent.”

“Oh dear, Smoker-san might get jealous Hina-san.” Tashigi chuckled uneasily.

“Oh Hina’s Love has nothing to be jealous about.” Hina said lightly. “Hina found him handsome and intelligent for Tashigi-san.”

“Hina-san you didn’t.” Tashigi groaned as she rubbed her face. Hina was well-meaning but often misguided. She was a smart woman and an excellent police officer, but often thought she knew best for her younger, bespectacled coworker. Especially since Tashigi had a dead in the water social life.

Problem was, Tashigi liked her dead in the water social life. Plus, Hina had a tendency to pick men for Tashigi that liked the kind of powerful woman Hina was and not the whatever kind of woman Tashigi was. Either that or they had the personality of stale crackers.

“Now, Hina knows you don’t like it when Hina sets you up on dinner dates.” The pink-haired woman said hurriedly as Tashigi’s brow wrinkled. “Which is why Hina has set you up on a blind date you can control.”

Tashigi paused. This was interesting. Normally Hina told her a date, time, and dress code. Usually a Friday night and black tie.

“I’m listening, Hina-san.” Tashigi said curiously.

“You pick the activity on the day and Balthazar will show up.” Hina said. “Hina promises a blind date Tashigi-san will enjoy.”

Tashigi pursed her lips. She didn’t really want to expend the energy a blind date entailed. But if she could pick the venue she could cut down on that hideously uncomfortable small talk. Plus, Hina looked so hopeful.

“It better not be this weekend, Hina-san.” Tashigi grumped. “Because I am not going to be the friendliest for a couple days because of this last case.”

“Hina set it up for next weekend.” Hina comforted joyfully. “What are you planning to do for your blind date?”

“I hope Detective Gregor Balthazar likes history museums.” Tashigi cackled.

“Hina regrets letting Tashigi-san choose.”

*****************************

“This is the worst beach I’ve ever been on.” Helmeppo grumbled as he laid face down on the cold pebbly sand at the end of Tashigi’s block.

“You didn’t need to come.” Tashigi huffed as she forked instant noodles into her mouth.

“We were worried.” Koby mumbled into Tashigi’s shoulder. “This case was really tough.”

They’d followed her home from the precinct. Hanging off her on the bus and almost following her into the bathroom as she changed into her pajamas.

Sometimes they cared a little too much.

“I’m fine.” Tashigi said with her mouth full. “Just need food and sleep. Eat your noodles.” She prodded Helmeppo’s shoulder with her chopsticks. “C’mon.”

“How can you eat?” Helmeppo asked as he reluctantly sat up and picked up his bowl. “Everywhere I look I just see that awful image from that video.”

Koby nodded mutely. Tashigi patted his hair.

“I am comforted by the knowledge that he won’t suffer at that man’s hands anymore.” Tashigi sighed tiredly.

“It’s just sad.” Koby murmured. “That horrible man died thinking he got away with it.”

“I’d like to believe,” Tashigi said after she swallowed a mouthful of noodles, “that Alfonse Salazar died slowly, with the knowledge that he hadn’t broken his son as he thought and that’d he’d never be able to touch his younger son.”

“An interesting notion, Detective-ya.” Tashigi looked over her shoulder. Trafalgar Law sauntered forward, wrist slung over his large nodachi sword, Kikoku, and other hand shoved in his yellow sweatshirt pocket. Who wore a sweatshirt in June? Tashigi wondered.

“Trafalgar,” Tashigi said surprised. “how can we help you?” Helmeppo and Koby were on high alert. They trusted the Strawhats—begrudgingly on Helmeppo’s part—but were a tad wary about the several of the Strawhat allies.

“I wanted to revisit the request you made of me the other day.” He smiled diplomatically. Why did it look so sarcastic? Swordswoman Tashigi recommended fighting him for his cheek. Succubus Tashigi agreed. Saint Tashigi was considering it.

Tashigi herself was not.

“I don’t seem to understand, Trafalgar.” She furrowed her brow. “Why would you want to do that?”

Law closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Swordsman-ya said you might not get it.” He sighed in annoyance.

“Get what?” Tashigi asked. Why did Law want to talk about how she embarrassed herself at the party? Did he want to insult her again?

“Yer fucking this up, Surgeon.” A rough voiced barked from the bushes separating the Thousand Sunny house and the cold, pebbly beach. There was a sharp slap. “Fucking Hells, what’d you do that for, Witch Woman?”

“You’re fucking this up.” Hissed a feminine voice. “Keep going, Law.”

“Do they think they’re being subtle?” Helmeppo asked as he stared at the rustling bushes. Koby had a hand over him mouth to muffle laughter.

“Sadly, yes.” Law groaned. “Detective-ya, I would like to assist you in the cases you asked me about.”

“Traffy.” Came a singsong voice. “You forgot to apologize.”

“You apologize.” Law snapped. “I’m doing my best. What do you want me to read the script to her, Strawhat-ya?”

Tashigi erupted into laughter. Tears leaked from her eyes as she fell backward into the sand. Snorts and hiccups wheezed out of her. Her stomach ached as she roared at the ridiculousness of the entire situation. Strawhats hiding in bushes, coaching Trafalgar Law through an apology to her.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” She wheezed as she pulled herself together. “It’s just…” She dissolved into giggles. “Koby, help me up.”

The beaming pink-haired young man helped her sit up. Helmeppo grinned widely too.

“Do you know how long it’s been since you laughed like that?” He chuckled in disbelief.

“I’m guessing a while.” Tashigi said sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head.

“Months.” Koby squeezed her upper arm reflexively. “It was nice to hear.”

“Tashigi-chan.” Sanji cooed as the Strawhats removed themselves from the bushes. “Your laugh is so cute.”

“Thank you, Sanji-san.” Tashigi said genially. “Although most people say it sounds like a squealing pig.”

“That was my thought too, Glasses.” Zoro smirked. “And I think I heard some bird screeching in there too.”

“Very funny, Roronoa.” Tashigi stuck her tongue out at him.

“I know.” He shrugged with a smile.

“Can I please finish this terrible apology?” Law grumbled. Luffy was hanging off him and giving him ‘pointers’ on how to apologize. A vein throbbed in Nami’s temple as she also furiously gave him ‘pointers’.

“I think we need to start over.” Usopp grinned. “Tweak the script, wouldn’t you say so too, Robin?” He looked up at the taller woman.

“Oh yes, completely, long-nose-kun.” Robin said pragmatically. “It was not theatrical enough. I need more drama from Law-san.”

“You want some pyrotechnics too, babe?” Franky asked as he produced fireworks from thin air.

“Yessssss!” Luffy cried. “That’ll be the prefect apology.”

“Hold off on the fireworks, Franky-san.” Tashigi smiled as she stood and brushed sand from the butt of her shorts. Koby and Helmeppo were already getting her back. “We should let Trafalgar say what he wants to, how he wants to.”

“Finally, someone with half a brain.” Law huffed.

“Please, Trafalgar, I have at least three-quarters of a brain.” Tashigi scoffed.

“Heh.” A grin twisted Law’s lips. “You’re a smartass.”

“Don’t call Tashigi-chan such a thing, you cretin.” Sanji seethed.

“Shut up, Curly Brows.” Zoro smacked Sanji with Enma’s sheath. “Get on with it, Tra-guy.”

“Detective-ya,” Law gritted, “several nights ago I made some unfounded assumptions about your character as an officer and denied to help you with your cases. It has been _repeatedly_ ,” he glared sideways at the Strawhats, “brought to my attention that I should’ve given you a chance.”

“You weren’t wrong to have your doubts though.” Tashigi assured him. “The case I need your help on fits the criteria you said about the police.” Law’s eyebrows raised. “We didn’t catch on until ‘nice college girls’ started to go missing.”

“Not many detectives would admit that.” Law said.

“I take my job seriously, which means I have to be aware of the faults in the system.”

He looked at her like he’d never seen her before.

“You remind me of someone I used to know.” He said thoughtfully. “How very strange.”

“I get called that a lot.” Tashigi shrugged. “So you’ll look into organ trade deaths?”

“I’ll try my best, Detective-ya.” The Surgeon sighed and rubbed his forehead. “What’s the criteria?”

“Young women. Organs missing obviously. Marks on the body consistent with a transient lifestyle perhaps. If you can’t find any bodies, then look for organs. A sudden uptick in high demand organs a year ago and three years ago.” Tashigi rattled off mindlessly. “Just any strange cases that wouldn’t catch police attention. Oh! I have pictures of victims in my study. Do you want to see?”

“No!” Tashigi jumped as both Chopper and Zoro shouted.

“You need sleep.” Chopper raged. “Go to bed!” He marched over to her and began pushing Tashigi toward her apartment.

“Yeah, what he said, Glasses.” Zoro coughed and rubbed the back of his head. Were his ears red? Why was Law smirking at him? Chopper was right she did need sleep, she was hallucinating.

“Alright, alright. Don’t push.” Tashigi chuckled. “Koby, Helmeppo, bring the bowls.”

“Sleepover at Tashi’s.” Luffy crowed.

“What? No!” Tashigi cried as more hands pushed her back through her front gate.

“Too late!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, plot. What is a plot?  
> Okie dokie, I hope this 'crime of the month' chapters turn out well. I always worry that my characterization is off, so I hope I did well with Ace, Law, and others.   
> Next chapter is going to be a bit fluffier and with lots more ZoTash.


	12. June IV

Being sweaty and rumpled in the lobby of the Federal Forensic Science building was probably a faux pas, but Tashigi had a schedule to keep and she was only at stop one.

She tugged the hem of her spotty sweat stained t-shirt as several scientists pursed their lips and wrinkled their noses as they passed Tashigi standing by the front desk. Garp had only told her the previous day that he’d gotten ahold of someone who could help her in her search for the girl who wasn’t killed after being kicked off Fish Man Island. The only time the man had been willing to meet was the next day, shame that it was also the same day as her blind date with Detective Balthazar from the G-2.

Was it a bad thing that Tashigi felt more comfortable working a case than getting ready for a date? Perhaps she truly was a strange creature, as Smoker always told her.

Tashigi had managed to keep her head together throughout her early morning spar with Zoro, but she’d tumbled straight into her thoughts once she got on the city bus headed toward Marineford.

What she wanted to ask wasn’t exactly legal. In fact it was a breach of privacy, but it was the only solution Tashigi had come with in the week since she’d discovered the woman who linked the sex trafficking with a large drug operation was alive.

The name on the woman’s mug shot from Fish Man Island was Mata Juniper. Whether it was her real name or not Tashigi didn’t know yet—Koby was still running it against missing persons from every province in the country, so it would take a bit—but what she did know was Juniper’s face.

She gazed down at the hollow cheeks and sunken black eyes. The stringy bleach blonde hair proved that her hair would be changed, but her face would probably be the same. Which is why Tashigi wanted to use the Federal resources.

She had ninety-three girls with red notecards and the words deceased under their pictures.

Perhaps a breach in privacy was needed.

“Detective Shoi Tashigi?” a deep and calm voice asked from behind her and she turned around. Agent Sentomaru was a large man with light skin and a sumo wrestlers’ build. A bright red shirt with an emblem meaning ‘heaven’ on the front stretched across his chest and a large scar extended from his left eye to the left corner of his mouth. “Captain Garp said you wanted to ask me a favor?”

“Ah, yes, Agent Sentomaru.” Tashigi bowed respectfully. “I should preface my request by telling you it isn’t entirely legal.”

“Oh?” Sentomaru raised one eyebrow skeptically. “That’s not something a Detective should be saying.” Tashigi gulped. How honest could she be with a man who called Deputy Commissioner Kizaru ‘uncle’, even if it’s just respectfully?

“I’ve got a missing suspect in a drug case.” Tashigi said quickly and showed him Mata Juniper’s mug shot. “She may have links to a larger operation and a previous case. I just wanted to know if you use the City Surveillance System to find her location in the city.”

“Ah,” Sentomaru said in understanding, “this isn’t an official case is it?”

“No.” Tashigi hung her head with a blush. “Very much unofficial until I can find proof.”

“What side of the Redline do you think she’s on?” Sentomaru’s tone was businesslike but intrigued.

“Probably the New World side.” Tashigi said hopefully.

“You know there are less cameras over there, right?” Sentomaru asked seriously. “If the missing woman is over there, she’s going to be really hard to find.”

“But you’re going to try?” Tashigi questioned, trying to keep the eager lilt out of her voice.

“The G-5 always send us the most interesting cases.” Sentomaru chuckled slightly. “I want to see what it’s like to be on the ground floor of one. If you need any other forensic expertise for this case, call me.” He handed her his business card and Tashigi fumblingly accepted it. “I’ll contact Garp if the cameras pick her up anywhere.”

“Thank you!” Tashigi called after the large man as he sauntered off with Mata Juniper’s picture. “Yes.” She muttered to herself and clapped her hands together in joy. She had leads, she had direction. The seemingly unnoticeable case had left traces.

“I can break this case.” She assured herself as she strode out of the Federal Forensic Science building. “And I can go on this date.”

******************************

Tashigi anxiously checked her watch for the forty-eighth time in two hours.

Detective Gregor Balthazar, her blind date, was late.

She paced the pavement in front of her apartment’s rickety white fence. Her ragged and rarely used navy crossbody purse rhythmically slapped her side. Hina had told her that Balthazar would meet her in front of her apartment at 11am.

Tashigi’s watch read 1:15pm.

Hina had promised he’d be polite and punctual. Tashigi figured standing her up counted against both.

“Ugh.” Tashigi groaned. While she wasn’t unfamiliar with the sensation of being stood up, Tashigi hated it for the sole purpose that it wasted her time.

Also, she’d gotten relatively dressed up.

Tashigi plucked the long linen skirt of her mustard yellow dress. It had been one of the summer dresses Isuka had helped her pick out when she went to visit. She liked it because it had large brown buttons from the hem to the V-neckline and loose short sleeves.

“Pfft.” Tashigi scowled and stopped her pacing. “It’s his loss anyway.”

“Who’s loss?” A gruff voice asked from her periphery.

“Eep!” Tashigi jumped and spun around.

Zoro smirked mischievously at Tashigi’s shock.

He was dressed comfortably in black basketball shorts and a t-shirt with green stripes of various shades and thickness and a dark green breast pocket. His black athletic sneakers were the ones he always wore. His swords hung at his sides by his usual red sash.

There were two bento boxes in his hands.

Tashigi scrunched her toes in her brown sandals. She felt a tad overdressed in her mid-calf length dress compared to him. Her fingers curled at the absence of Shigure at her side.

“What?” She stuttered and brushed a stray hair behind her ear. The large clip she’d used to secure her hair wasn’t the best.

“Who’s loss, Glasses?” He chuckled. “Ya know people might think you’re off your rocker if they hear you talking to yourself.”

“I’m sure that ship has long sailed.” Tashigi scoffed. “If you must know, Roronoa,” she said imperiously and turned her nose up slightly, “I’ve been stood up by a blind date.”

Zoro’s eye widened.

“Damn.” He muttered and scrubbed his free hand through his short green hair. “You don’t seem that beaten up about it though?”

“I’ve been stood up before.” Tashigi said dismissively. “What I don’t like is having my time wasted.” She wrinkled her nose in frustration. “Anyway, why are you here, Roronoa?”

“Well,” Zoro said languidly, “when your neighbor paces in the street for two hours, you get a little concerned. Also, Ero-cook wanted me to bring you lunch.” He shook the bento boxes in his hand.

“Sanji-san wanted you to bring me lunch?” Tashigi asked in disbelief.

“Eh, he may have wanted to do it himself.” Zoro shrugged. “He may have been, ehm, _prevented_.” He smiled roguishly and held out a bento box.

“For a man who pretends not to care, you sure are nosy, Roronoa.” Tashigi smirked as she took the food. “Going so far as to injure one of your friends to ask me why I’m pacing.”

“Eh, Swirly Brow will shake it off.” Zoro scoffed and plopped down on the curb. “And I’m not nosy.”

“Roronoa, you are so nosy, it’s ridiculous.” Tashigi chuckled as she gently settled next to him on the curb, arranging her skirt so she didn’t flash anyone who might be peaking out their windows. “All of you are. Never has my personal space or my privacy been so invaded by one group of people.” She popped the lid off her bento box.

“Are you complaining about being our friend, Glasses?” Zoro mumbled around a bite of spicy chicken.

“Does your friendship have to involve breaking into my apartment?” Tashigi asked ribbingly around a bite of rice. She grabbed a piece of spicy sauce covered chicken and moved to put in her mouth. It slipped, like most of her food tended to do at some point, and dropped towards her lap.

“Watch it.” Zoro said and caught the piece of chicken with his rapid reflexives. “And I told you, Kid was over and he still hates me for giving his bestie Killer a few slices. I needed a place to nap in peace.” He popped the chicken into his mouth.

“That was mine.” Tashigi pouted.

“Don’t drop shit and it’ll stay yours.” Zoro snarked. He forked some sautéed peppers into his mouth and grinned at her.

“Caveman.” She huffed and picked up another piece of chicken.

The silence was companionable. Only because Tashigi was focused on keeping her food in her mouth and off her clothes, and not on the proximity of a certain green-haired man.

“So,” Zoro said offhandedly with a swallow, “who was your blind date?”

“Huh? Oh. A detective from the G-2 that Hina-san met on her serial case.” Tashigi answered flippantly. “I should probably tell Hina-san he didn’t show up. Shame, I was actually looking forward to one of her blind dates for once.”

“What’s wrong with her dates?” Zoro asked, brow quirked curiously. He chewed his rice slowly and watched her from the corner of his good eye.

“They’re always in fancy restaurants and I have to wear heels and makeup.” Tashigi whined. “Do you know who invented heels, Roronoa? Men who wanted took make it harder for women to run away.”

“You must be a menace in those things.” Zoro laughed and tilted his head to look at her feet. “Probably easier to fight without them too.” He muttered more to himself.

“It definitely is.” Tashigi agreed. “But Hina taught me how to chase a perp and vault a fence in those things, so I’m not too hindered. I just can’t seem to successfully navigate in them on a date.” She picked up the last of her sautéed peppers.

“You’re not wearing them now.” Zoro observed. “Hina set you up on a different type of date this time?” His tone was curious, but Tashigi detected something strange in the undercurrent of his voice. Oh, she could never figure this man out.

“The only reason I agreed to be set up on this date was because Hina-san said I could pick the date.” Tashigi explained and turned a little red. Zoro would make fun of her for sure.

“And what were you gonna do?” Zoro smirked at the color in Tashigi’s cheeks.

“Before you make fun of me,” Tashigi began and Zoro started laughing, deep and rough, “stop laughing, Roronoa,” her lips twitched to join his infectious noise, “I won’t tell you if you don’t.”

“Okay, okay.” Zoro wheezed and stopped laughing, putting on his usual cool and blasé face. “I’ll stop laughing.”

“Good.” Tashigi huffed and pushed an errant hair behind her ear primly. “I wanted to go to the Grandline Historical Museum.” The corners of his mouth curved upward, but he didn’t laugh. “Because the travelling Wano exhibit is there this month.”

“Oh, sword nerd, you’re a predictable girl.” Zoro chuckled.

“I resent that, Roronoa.” Tashigi huffed. “I’d have wanted to go to the museum without the Wano exhibit.”

“But,” He scrunched his nose at her mockingly, “would it have been as fun?”

“No.” She said with a pout after several stubborn moments.

“If you wanted to know about Wano Province, Glasses, you could’ve asked me.” Zoro said curiously, “Or really any of us. We’ve all been there.”

“Don’t rub it in, Roronoa.” Tashigi snapped and stuck her finger in his face. “Do you know how jealous I was when I read the paper that week? All those legendary swords.” She sighed dreamily. “So many unknown bladesmithing techniques.”

“Such a fucking geek.” Zoro chuckled. “Why go to a museum when you could go to Wano yourself? It ain’t closed for business anymore.” He seem genuinely confused as to why she didn’t just go out there.

“I don’t have the time, Roronoa.” Tashigi scoffed and slumped back against the fence. “It’d be like a thirteen day trip, and that’s factoring in the three days it takes to get there. That’s a lot of time to take off.”

“Only if you’re a workaholic.” Zoro said with reproach in his tone. “So you visit the world through the halls of a museum.”

“Why does it sound so sad when you say it?” Tashigi said moodily, a little hurt that one of her favorite pastimes was somehow disappointing to him. “Not all of us have the luxury to fuck off for a month. It’s the only option I have.” She crossed her arms defensively across her chest and puffed her cheeks.

“I just don’t see the appeal.” Zoro shrugged. “Going alone to a museum.”

“Okay, that’s where you’re wrong.” Tashigi clarified and scooted closer to him on the curb, intensity overtaking her. “I never go to a museum alone. I always take someone with me.”

“Why?” He asked and nudged her with his elbow.

“Er, Isuka calls it my desire to have a captive audience.” Tashigi stuttered and Zoro smirked. “I say it’s good to have someone to discuss the history with.”

“I think you do most of the talking.” Zoro chuckled and Tashigi flushed.

“I may get a little carried away.” She said loftily. “But that’s only because I’m passionate.”

“Uh huh, uh huh.” Zoro hummed with a sly smile. “This I gotta see.”

“What?” Tashigi asked, startled as Zoro’s warm hand wrapped around her upper arm. “What are you talking about?” She scrambled awkwardly to her feet as Zoro gently tugged her upwards.

“Go get your sword, Glasses, we’re going to the museum.” Zoro said as he collected her empty bento box. “Can’t believe I just said that willingly.”

“What? Oh, Roronoa, you don’t need to—Listen I don’t do well with pity.” Tashigi said firmly. A pity date from Roronoa Zoro would just cause her to curl up into a ball of humiliation.

“It ain’t pity, Glasses.” Zoro said seriously, then leaned in close to her face and smirked. “Call it scientific curiosity.” Tashigi shivered. Odd, considering the warmth of the day. Roronoa Zoro turned her on in the strangest of ways.

“Okay.” She breathed. Zoro grinned.

He jogged back across the street.

Tashigi stood breathless before she realized that he was probably coming back.

She hoofed it through the front gate and up the stairs to her apartment.

Once she fumbled through her front door, Tashigi raced over to Shigure leaning against her bedside table and picked it up.

She was back out the door, pausing to lock it, and out by the curb minutes later.

Tashigi panted slightly and readjusted her cross body purse so it didn’t look like she’d sprinted eagerly up the stairs—even though she totally had. Saint Tashigi twittered in her ear that going on an almost date with a man she’d arrested wasn’t good for her professional distance. Succubus Tashigi pointed out that Tashigi’s professional distance with Zoro was DOA.

Swordswoman Tashigi didn’t give two shits if it was a bad idea to take Zoro to a museum. Tashigi imagined that the third aspect of her personality was bouncing eagerly on top of her head, inching to start spouting fun facts and sword stats.

“Head in the clouds already, Glasses?” Zoro asked as he returned. He’d exchanged his black basketball shorts for a pair of black jeans with rips in the knees. Huh, it’s almost like he’d dressed up. She thought with a blush and then quickly dismissed the thought. Oh, don’t be silly Tashigi, it’s not like this is an _actual_ date.

“Oh, just thinking about all the sword facts I know.” Tashigi smirked and pulled her glasses down from her black hair. She pulled out her pocket meito field guide, which marked swords as being in use or in collections.

“Save it for the museum, Sword Geek.” Zoro said. “How are we gonna get there?”

“The bus.” Tashigi mumbled as she read and walked off down the street.

“The bus? Don’t you have a car, Miss. Law Enforcement?”

“It’s Smoker’s car and I’ve been banned from driving in the city.”

“Is the fire department responsible for that too?” Zoro chuckled.

“No, Smoker is.” Tashigi sighed as she closed her pocket field guide. “He said it was to protect other innocent cars from my ‘psychopathic driving’.” Tashigi rolled her eyes and used finger quotes to accentuate Smoker’s words.

“Oh ho, what’d you do to old Smokey that made him be so mean to his favorite subordinate?” Zoro asked as they turned out of their street.

“I broke the rear axle of his car and popped two of the tires in a high speed chase.” Tashigi answered red faced.

“Holy Shit, Glasses.” Zoro laughed and put a hand over his eyes. “Don’t tell Franky. He isn’t soft in the head like Dart Brow, he might actually stop talking to you if he knew you did that to a car.”

“It was an accident.” Tashigi whined. “The curb came out of nowhere.”

Zoro just shook his head.

“You don’t drive.” Tashigi huffed as she dropped onto the bus stop bench.

“I do to drive.” Zoro snarked as he settled next to her, hands laced behind his head. “Just why expend the energy when there’s someone else to do it, ya know?” He closed his eye.

“You probably got lost your first time out.” Tashigi said with a smug grin. “Now, they won’t even let you try.”

“It ain’t my fault, okay.” Zoro grumbled. “The streets didn’t match the map and everybody was yelling. Circumstances, Glasses, circumstances.”

“They were probably yelling because you were going the wrong way, Roronoa.” Tashigi giggled. She shifted closer to him and settled comfortably by his side, shoulder just brushing his.

Zoro hummed noncommittally with a slight twist to his lips.

The bus rolled up to the stop.

Tashigi tugged Zoro off the bench by his sleeve and scanned her bus pass twice as they entered the crowded bus.

“So many fuckin’ people.” Zoro muttered as they pushed to two empty standing spots in the middle of the bus.

“It’s the middle of the day on a weekend.” Tashigi sighed as she reached up to grip the hand bar. Zoro grabbed the spot next to her. “If you want less people, then ride the bus at 4am.”

“Speaking from experience, Glasses?” Zoro asked as the bus lurched forward.

“Always, Roronoa.” Tashigi smiled sardonically.

Someone bumped her from behind and Tashigi scooted forward to avoid whoever it was. They bumped her again and Tashigi nearly toppled into Zoro trying to avoid them. She glared over her shoulder at the man who’d bumped her; he shrugged unapologetically.

Zoro’s arm looped around her waist and dragged Tashigi into his chest.

“Ack, Zoro.” Tashigi muffled into his chest. She wriggled off his chest slightly. “What are you doing? I can stand just fine.” She hissed, trying not to cause a scene on the bus and trying not to focus on the heat of his forearm bleeding through the back of her dress.

“You were moving this way eventually. I just sped things up.” He muttered into her hair, glaring at the guy over her head.

“Did you have to pull me so close, Roronoa?” Tashigi huffed as she righted herself slightly against his chest and adjusted her grip on the hand bar until their hands were touching. “Seriously, people are staring.”

“How come it’s ‘Zoro’ when you’re surprised and ‘Roronoa’ for everything else?” Zoro asked as he withdrew his arm away from Tashigi’s waist. She found she missed the warmth and pressure. Succubus Tashigi wailed at the loss of contact.

“It’s to keep a professional distance.” Tashigi gulped and fiddled with Shigure’s hilt with her free hand. “Can’t very well go around calling criminals by affectionate nicknames.”

“Liar.” He whispered and his breath tickled her forehead. “Isn’t Chopper now Chopper-kun? And I swear you dropped honorifics entirely once when talking to Nami. Why just me, Tashigi?”

Oh, the use of her name. How it made her spine tingle and the hairs on her body stand on end pleasurably. He knew exactly how to push her buttons.

“Maybe I need to be more professional around you.” She stuttered and nudged her glasses further up her nose as she focused on Zoro’s good eye.

“Could you not?” He asked softly. “Even if it’s just for today?”

The look in his dark eye was tender, yet frustrated. Like he was trying to be sweet when he really just wanted to yell. Yet he knew yelling would trigger her stubbornness reflexes and he’d never get what he wanted. They’d be arguing instead of communicating.

“A name for a name.” Tashigi swallowed thickly as heat rolled up from her abdomen and into her cheeks. “No ‘Glasses”, then no ‘Roronoa’.”

“Whatever you say, Tashigi.” He grinned crookedly.

Oh shit. Tashigi thought as her knees trembled at his wicked smile. This so-not-a-date might kill her and it’d be all Zoro’s fault.

**************************

The so-not-a-date didn’t in fact kill Tashigi. Instead she forgot immediately why she was so flushed and frustrated the moment she entered the museum. She was whisked away on a mental boat to her happy place.

Oblivious to her own actions, Tashigi lead Zoro by his wrist from room to room. She spouted off facts and stories about bladesmithing and the meito on display. She touched his back, chest, and shoulders carelessly and profusely as she gushed excitedly about Wano armor and other weapons besides meito.

Zoro wore a small smile throughout. As he listened interestedly to every single word she said. Such a friggin’ sword geek. He’d occasionally place a large hand at the small of her back if she edged a little too close to another group in her ramblings. Watching slender, yet callused fingers falter in their extravagant gesturing and red climb her neck and face.

However, she never stopped talking.

Nor did she call him Roronoa.

“What’s actually really fascinating about this sword, Zoro,” Tashigi breathed excitedly as they stood by a large glass display case in the middle of the last hall of the traveling exhibit, “is that it was not cursed later by the actions of a wielder, but rather the curse was folded into the blade as it was being smithed.”

“Why would a bladesmith do that, Tashigi.” Zoro asked in amusement. Every time she’d said his name, he’d said hers. Finding it highly entertaining how it made her never ending words stutter and her body shudder.

“Well,” Tashigi said in a low voice and pressed close to Zoro to whisper in his ear, “for this particular sword no one allegedly knows, but,” she paused and glanced around for eavesdroppers, “a swordsmith I knew once told me that a woman crafted this sword to curse her lover in battle. Owing to the fact that he’d stepped out on her.”

“The scoundrel.” Zoro chuckled and gripped her hip lightly as a trio of college students strolled by. “How do you know it was a woman bladesmith? The maker is unknown.” He jerked his thumb at the informational plaque.

“The symbol carved into the butt of the hilt.” Tashigi said softly as she stared lovingly at the gleaming metal and lacquered black sheath. A blood red swath of cloth was twisted around the gold hilt. A dove carrying a flower was carved into the beaten exposed gold. “My moth—I mean, the bladesmith I knew was obsessed with finding traces of historical female bladesmiths, who were largely left unnamed or written out of history. She tracked that symbol to several other swords by unnamed smiths to a practice sword forged by a female apprentice, Amano Kiku.”

“And what makes you think this was revenge on a lover?” Zoro asked cautiously.

“The name of the sword: Kiku no shi.” She said sadly. “Death of the Chrysanthemum. Matching the timeline of Amano Kiku’s sparsely recorded life and this sword’s creation, then she would have ended her own life on exactly the day it was finished and delivered. Three months later, records report that the famous samurai Kita’s sword rebelled against him in battle and drove itself through his neck, unaided by the enemy.”

“Damn, that’s a powerful curse.” Zoro muttered, as he reappraised the sword hungrily. How could one man enjoy bloodthirsty swords so much? “How does anyone make a curse that powerful?” He asked.

“With blood.” Tashigi said casually. “It’s probably why she died to be honest, blood loss from forging a cursed sword. Imagine, pouring out so much revenge that it kills you.”

“Doesn’t say blood anywhere on the sign.” Zoro’s brows furrowed.

“The red vein along the dull edge of the blade.” Tashigi pointed out. “There is a record of cursed swords with such a vein being found snapped in two and anthropologists discovering that it is hundred years old blood inside.”

“Now that is the type of creepy shit that would make Robin happy.” Zoro chuckled. “And you too, by the looks of it.”

“Huh?” Tashigi ripped her eyes from gazing reverently upon Kiku no shi. “What do you mean?”

“A sword that kills its masters and you’re lookin’ at it like a kid in a candy store.” Zoro smirked and placed a hand on her lower back. “Care to share?”

“You’re one to talk.” Tashigi huffed, flustered. “If you must know, I’ve wanted to see this sword since I was a little girl. You could say this is a childhood dream realized.”

“You must’ve been one strange kid.”

“Only to outsiders.” She hummed indifferently and then blushed as her stomach gurgled.

“Hungry, Tashigi?” Zoro laughed and pulled his hand from the small of her back. “Well, it is almost 5pm.”

“It’s almost 5pm?” Tashigi gapped. “Zoro, why didn’t you say anything? Your feet must ache.” She frantically tugged him by his hands to the nearest bench.

“I’m made of stronger stuff.” Zoro chuckled as he placed a large, calming hand on her shoulder, stopping her tugging. “Besides you were kinda, well…” He coughed and his ears pinked.

“Kinda what?” Tashigi asked, wincing at the predicted remark. Kinda forceful. Kinda annoying. Kinda oblivious.

“Er, well, kinda fascinating to watch.” Zoro mumbled and his face dusted in color. He scrubbed a hand awkwardly through his hair and rubbed the back of his neck. His eye avoided hers.

“Oh.” Tashigi felt a pleasant flush bloom in her chest. “That’s, um, that’s the first time I’ve heard anyone say that.” She chewed her lip.

“Then they haven’t been looking.” Zoro said seriously and turned to catch her gaze. Tashigi’s breath hitched as her fingers fluttered nervously over his own. Why was she still holding them again? Warm and rough and tanned, Tashigi absentmindedly traced several nicks that crisscrossed his knuckles.

“We should go get food.” She said hurriedly and made to drop his hands.

“Only if you’re buying.” Zoro chuckled and trapped one of her hands in his own. He began leading her out of the exhibit hall.

“I can see why you’re debit to Nami-san.” Tashigi scoffed as she stumbled to catch up. She tugged him the correct way when he turned to go down the wrong hallway.

“If you knew anything about me, Tashigi, you’d say crippling debit. The witch’s interest rates are criminal.” Zoro snarked as they descended the steps to the museum’s foyer. Their hands were still clasped. Unlaced fingers though. Tashigi reminded herself as she tried not to focus on the feeling of his palm against hers. Isuka once said that if a guy liked you, he’d lace your fingers together. She was still safe, there was still a barrier.

“Nami-san is a criminal.” Tashigi sighed as they stepped out into the warm early evening. “I’m pretty sure her hustle as a bookie, loan shark, and illegal gambler is what keeps your group afloat.”

“That explains why she had me intimidate some random dude the other day.” Zoro mused as he scratched his chin.

“I don’t what to know.” Tashigi closed her eyes and shook her head.

“Eh, he coughed it up.” Zoro smirked. “Now what’s for dinner, Glasses?” Did that mean their truce against her professionalism was over or was he just winding her up? By the glint in his eye Tashigi figured he was messing with her.

“I’ll have you know, Roronoa,” she said in mock seriousness, “that I’m a classy lady.”

“Uh huh.” He snorted.

“Only the finest food may pass my lips.”

“Sure it does.” He snickered. “So whatcha got?”

“Hmm.” Tashigi said airily and then stepped to the side to reveal the dinner choice parked in a line with other mobile food vendors. “Taco truck.”

Succubus Tashigi purred in delight to hear Zoro laugh so loud. Saint Tashigi and Swordswoman Tashigi both agreed that the raucous sound was almost pleasant. The man was handsome when he laughed.

***************************

“Luffy did not throw aside Nidai Kitetsu’s sheath.” Tashigi gapped in horror as she and Zoro turned down their shared street. “No, Luffy didn’t not wield Nidai Kitetsu period, please tell me you’re joking right? He’s not that foolish?”

Zoro was sharing his own, rather more firsthand experience, stories of Wano.

“I swear to you, Glasses, I tried to stop him.” Zoro laughed at her appalled expression. “You’d actually be proud of me. I knew it was meito when I saw it.”

“You do have a strange sixth sense about dangerous swords.” Tashigi hummed, recalling their very first meeting in that Loguetown sword shop.

“Eh, I’m special that way.” Zoro smirked and Tashigi shook her head.

“Insufferable man.” She puffed her cheeks out enviously. “Anyways, Luffy better not go around touching anymore curse meito. Or I will arrest him for…for…for something.” The most the man-child ever did was assault and battery. She could stretch it to aiding dissident groups, but the Strawhat wearing boy didn’t think that way, so it wouldn’t ever be intentional.

“Don’t worry, Tashigi.” Zoro grinned slyly at her pout. “I’ll protect all the meito I come across from Luffy. You can put them all in museums.” 

“Okay. _That_ is _not_ what I want to do with the meito I find, but now that we’re on the subject,” Tashigi said as she stopped in the street in front of her apartment, “be honest with me, did you enjoy it?” She asked Zoro nervously.

It was almost 7pm and they had just gotten off the, significantly less crowded, bus.

“Well,” Zoro drawled, “you talked a lot.” Tashigi winced. Men often didn’t like it when she talked a lot. “But it’s not like you said anything boring.”

“Oh?” She asked in surprise. Even Zoro’s appreciation for The Way probably didn’t extend to the twenty minute mini lecture Tashigi gave on how Wano swords are composed of various distinct sections of different types of steel. “Really?” Her brow creased in skepticism.

“It was weird shit and it really shouldn’t have been interesting.” Zoro muttered and scratched his cheek. “But you made it interesting…somehow.”

“I feel like that was more of an insult than a compliment, Roronoa.” Tashigi said sarcastically and folded her arms across her chest. “So you didn’t enjoy it. That’s okay.”

“No. That’s not—damnit woman.” Zoro pinched the bridge of his nose and inhaled deeply. “That is not what I meant.”

“You’re gonna have to tell it to me straight, Roronoa.” Tashigi said, confused, if he hadn’t meant he didn’t enjoy it, then what did he mean. “Smoker says I’m oblivious unless informed otherwise and I really don’t understand what you mean.”

“Fuckin’ hell.” Zoro groaned into his hand. “Why are you so difficult?”

“I think you’re the one being difficult here.” Tashigi scoffed.

“Look.” Zoro grumbled and put both hands on her shoulders. Startled, Tashigi straightened and looked directly into Zoro’s exasperated dark eye. “What I was trying to say is that I don’t normally enjoy that type of shit, but you made it nice and interesting. I don’t regret spending five hours at a museum with you.”

“Oh, well, good.” Tashigi said with a pleased smile and deep pink to her cheeks. She nervously pushed her glasses up her nose. “I do hope you know that saying that puts you on a very short list of people who I force to go with me to museums.”

“Ah fuck.” Zoro complained good-naturedly. “Those other people on the list better be ahead of me. I don’t care how cute you look rambling about swords, like a friggin’ nerd, I ain’t down with any other museums.”

Tashigi wasn’t sure she registered the rest of his words. He’d called her cute. Tashigi felt like a naive teenager, blushing because someone called her cute. Well, not just anyone, Zoro; who never seemed the type to call anyone cute, not even Chopper.

“I—I looked cute?” Tashigi stuttered as her eyes widened in astonishment.

“Uh…” Zoro coughed and pink dusted his cheeks. He gripped the back of his neck with one hand and the other still clasped her shoulder. “Uh…just a bit. It was, uh, your hands and your excitement.” He cleared his throat awkwardly.

This was the most flustered Tashigi had ever seen the man.

It was adorable. He avoided her curious gaze. How his ears and cheeks turned pink.

“Roronoa, are you blushing?” Tashigi giggled. She forgot all propriety to stand on her tiptoes and peered up at the green-haired man. “You are!” The movement jarred a chunk of hair from her weak clip.

“I am not, Glasses.” Zoro scowled and turned back to look at her. Only to find Tashigi’s face abnormally close. “I’m not blushing.”

“That’s red and that’s red.” Tashigi snickered childishly as she pointed a finger at both Zoro’s cheeks and his ears. Her finger brushed his three earrings. “It’s a blush.”

“It is not.” Zoro grunted and caught Tashigi’s poking finger. He curled his fingers over the back of her hand and moved it out of his face. “I don’t blush.”

“Oh, okay.” Tashigi smirked and blew a stray chunk of hair from her face. “Then what do you call the color all over your face?” She put her finger down, resting it against the back of Zoro’s larger hand. He didn’t let go.

“I’m just a little warm from the sun.” Zoro said airily and reached up to tuck the stray chunk of hair behind her ear. “I can tell you what a blush really looks like.” He dragged his fingers back through Tashigi’s hair and the bespectacled woman sucked in her breath. “It’s about the same tomato color you turn when I do this.”

Zoro cradled the back of her head, fingers bumping the loosened clip, and his hand holding hers fell down to their sides.

Tashigi stepped closer to him and her free hand came up to clutch the side of his shirt. Her breathing was ragged and her eyelids dropped in anticipation. She felt the brush of Zoro’s nose against her own and the puff of his breath against her mouth.

“It must be terribly unattractive.” She mumbled as she met his equally half lidded gaze.

“Quite the opposite, actually.” Zoro whispered in a strained voice. “You have no idea what it does to me.” He leaned closer and Tashigi stretched on her tiptoes as he hovered just over her lips. She didn’t know what was taking so long, she just wanted to kiss him.

“Care to—”

“Zoro!” Cried an excited male voice and a black and red blur tackled Zoro right into the white fence in front of Tashigi’s apartment.

“What just happened?” She muttered, confused at the sudden absence of Zoro.

Tashigi looked over the fence to find an excited and babbling Luffy coiled around a disoriented Zoro, flat on his back in the flowerbeds.

“Zoro!” Luffy said gleefully. “You missed it. I don’t know where you were this afternoon, but Usopp, Chopper, and I went to the park and I found this really cool beetle—Oh, hey Tashi, your hair is messy. Anyway…”

Tashigi frantically re-clipped her hair as Luffy chattered on.

“Son of a bitch.” Tashigi heard Zoro growl under his breath. He had a hand pressed across his eyes. When he pulled his hand away his eye was thunderous. “Luffy, buddy, did you really need to tell me now?” The edge in his voice surprised Tashigi.

“Why not? What were you doing?” Luffy asked innocently.

“If you must know,” Zoro grumbled as he sat up, lifting Luffy along with him, “Glasses and I were—”

“Doing nothing.” Tashigi interrupted, practically shouting. “We were doing absolutely nothing.” She felt her chest heat with color.

“Weird.” Luffy said suspiciously. “Zoro, Tashi is being weird and she’s all red.”

“She is a weirdo.” Zoro said, he looked both amused and slightly annoyed.

“Sweet Holy Meito.” Tashigi put her head in her hands. She was embarrassed and frustrated that she’d been interrupted before she’d been able to kiss Zoro. This was the second time it happened. While with Mihawk she’d be absolutely humiliated, because he’s a freaking legend and she’d been a bit blotchy from almost crying. With Luffy the frustration won out. She hadn’t been upset and Luffy didn’t understand what he’d interrupted.

Instead of being able to kiss Zoro, Tashigi was again left with the ever swirling eddy of thoughts that went something like: oh gods, oh gods, what would happen if they had kissed? What would they be? Would it be only once? Had he kissed her out of curiosity?

Oh course she’d never know thanks to Luffy.

Tashigi rubbed her eyes under her glasses and blew a frustrated sigh out her nose.

She watched Zoro climb over the fence with Luffy clinging like a talkative sloth to Zoro’s back. The man had a long-suffering, yet indulgent look on his face as he listened to his boss/best friend babble about beetles.

“Hey, Tashi, you wanna see my new beetle too?” Luffy asked as Zoro planted both feet on the pavement of the street.

Tashigi glanced briefly at Zoro, who quirked a brow, as if to say: your call.

“Sure, Luffy.” Tashigi sighed as she followed the men across the street.

Either she or Zoro were cursed and while several months or years ago Tashigi would have welcomed an interruption to an almost kiss with the Demon Swordsman. Such an interruption would have snapped her back to reality and placed her back on the track of professionalism. Nowadays, Tashigi wanted to claw Zoro back towards her and get him to run those calloused hands of his over every part of her body.

She was becoming more Succubus than Saint and she needed to get it handled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, fluff. If this is considered fluff.   
> Also I put my favorite quote from She's the Man in here, because it's very on brand for Tashigi.  
> I'll stop cockblocking her soon, don't worry ;)


	13. July I

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I LIVE! I meant to update in October but I didn't have as much completed as I wanted to, Grad School really takes up a ton of time. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter, there are *ehem* sexy times.

Like many nice things in her life, Tashigi used her pretty new dress for work before she used it for herself.

While Isuka had forced her to buy the dress because she’d been circling the rack like a vulture, Tashigi did plan to wear it on appropriate occasions. The precinct threw a New Year’s party every year, she’d penciled it in for then. The policeman’s ball in late November was a bit more formal that the dress admittedly was, but Tashigi had a talent for making a lot of items of clothing that were supposed to be sexy look frumpy.

Instead the dress’s first use was an undercover mission.

“Damn torture device.” Tashigi cursed as she struggled in the precinct ladies room with the balconette bra Hina had bought her last Christmas. “Every lady should have fancy undergarments my ass.” She growled as she struggled to comfortably secure her breasts in the black lace monstrosity.

A uniformed officer exited the last stall and stared in concern at the struggling detective.

“Hi, how are you?” Tashigi said blandly as she adjusted the underwire.

The uniformed officer fled the ladies room.

Tashigi shrugged as she fiddled with the straps of the bra. The cutting pressure in her shoulders eased and Tashigi smoothed the mesh and lace cups with a relieved breath. She just had to get her tight dress over the cumbersome things.

Cumbersome things being her breasts.

Tashigi had been perfectly pleased with her small breasts when she’d finished puberty in high school. Years of hard training had made her more muscled than perhaps the average woman—Isuka once said that Tashigi’s back muscles looked like sculpted marble—so there had always been a nice layer of muscle under her small chest. Plus it was a helluva lot easier to fight when she wasn’t top heavy.

Nobody told her that her body would go through significant changes in her twenties. She lost the baby fat in her face, which made her look less like a child flashing a fake badge and more like an actual detective. But the surge and then decline in her metabolism had left her with some rather unexpected curves. Her barely B-cups had turned into barely D-cups. Not to mention she had to buy new pants for her fuller hips.

It’d made turning twenty-two feel like turning sixteen, awkward body changes and all.

Tashigi wiggled into the tight dress. She tugged the spaghetti straps to cover her bra straps as best she could and then adjusted the hem and neckline to her comfort. She wobbled precariously as she fastened on a pair of strappy black heels.

“Hina-san.” Tashigi called out the ladies room door. “I’m all dressed.” Tashigi repacked her dress shirt and slacks into her gym duffle. She then grumpily took off her glasses and nearly jabbed her eyes out putting in contacts. She blinked rapidly at the uncomfortable burning sensation as Hina pushed into the bathroom.

“Goodness, Tashigi-san.” Hina cooed as she appraised the younger woman. “Hina is almost upset that this outfit is being wasted on undercover.”

“You and me both.” Tashigi sighed as she smoothed down the sides of her dress and assessed herself in the mirror. The dress was a velvet material and if she shifted one way it was a royal blue, shifted the other way it was a deep magenta. If she walked the two colors would shift seamlessly between themselves. There was delicate ruching along the sides, for artful wrinkles, but Tashigi had pulled the fabric to her knees so the ruching was stretched out. The fabric cut straight across her sternum, with the slightest of dips in the neckline.

“Hina just wants to change a few things before she does Tashigi-san’s makeup.” Hina said thoughtfully as she set her small makeup bag on the bathroom counter. Hina reached over and hiked the skin tight skirt from its place at Tashigi’s knees until the hemline rested mid-thigh. She then tugged the back of the dress upward, forcing the neckline down Tashigi’s chest until a substantial bit of cleavage showed.

The artful wrinkles were returned to the clinging fabric, making it an ocean of shifting blue and magenta, and the dip of the neckline became a sexy folded scoop.

“You know,” Tashigi huffed, “it was fine the other way.”

“Hina would have to disagree.” The pink-haired woman chuckled as she unzipped the makeup bag. Tashigi couldn’t handle applying more make up than mascara and lip gloss. Anything requiring more skill she called Hina. “Hina is a little sad she’s not going to see Tashigi-san attempt to flirt with the target.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me.” Tashigi sighed as she crouched to allow Hina access to her face.

Jango and Fullbody had landed a big identity theft case. They didn’t have the ring of people who’d stolen the identities, but they did have eyes and evidence on the big time forger that was using the identities to forge fake licenses and empty bank accounts. If they just dragged the man in, he’d clam up and they’d never get the names of the thieves. Which is why they’d turned to Tashigi for help.

Every Saturday, the forger, Winston Berry, would hang out at a bar on the Divider Strip called _The Tropicana_. He’d drink and flirt from 5 until 10, longer if he got a woman to talk to him. They’d decided to plant a woman to get him to talk. Tashigi was supposed to come in a four to get ready, but the preparations for Nami’s birthday party had made it a little difficult for her to get work done in her apartment.

She’d been camped out in the precinct breakroom since noon working on her Fish Man Island case. She was trying to match the overdoses from Fish Man Island to others in the G precincts.

“Hina has faith in you.” Hina said as she brushed eyeshadow onto Tashigi’s lid. “You can be very charming when you want to.”

“I just hope I don’t break an ankle or smear my makeup.” Tashigi muttered.

“Hina knows how Tashigi-san is. Stand.” Hina ordered and Tashigi straightened. “Open your mouth.” She pulled out a magenta lipstick that matched Tashigi’s dress. “Hina is using Emporio Ivankov’s Miracle Lipstick and Miracle Palette. It’s military grade makeup.”

“What?” Tashigi gapped.

“Don’t move.” Hina ordered as she swiped the lipstick across Tashigi’s bottom lip. “Ivankov’s makeup has been tested to withstand the sweat and grime of an active battlefield. Press your lips together.”

“Who would need to know that?” Tashigi asked as she rolled her lips together.

“Who knows?” Hina shrugged and evened out the lipstick. “Ivankov might be a revolutionary, but he does his clinical testing. Hina once accidentally wore his eyeliner during an entire marathon and it was still untouched after twenty-six miles.”

“Oh wow.” Tashigi breathed. “Besides you, who needs makeup that strong?”

“Exotic dancers.” Hina said candidly. “Hina is finished. Hina going to put the special make up remover in Tashigi-san’s bag.” She dropped an hourglass shaped bottle into Tashigi’s gym bag.

“They do work very hard and sweat a lot.” Tashigi agreed and turned to the mirror. Hina had given her a simple and sensual smokey eye. The subdued magenta lipstick matched the colors of the dress well. “Remind me to buy some of Ivankov’s Miracle Makeup.”

“Hina will get you some for your birthday.” The pink-haired woman smiled. “Now, Hina has to do your hair. Crouch.” She pulled a brush from her makeup bag and several black hair ties. Tashigi crouched.

“Ow.” She winced as Hina tugged her hair.

“Hina thinks it wouldn’t hurt so much if you brushed more often.” Hina scolded and yanked half of Tashigi’s long black hair upwards. “Tashigi-san has such lovely hair.”

“I did brush.” Tashigi pouted. “My hair just turns on itself. I’m telling you it has a mind of its own.” She winced as Hina tugged particularly sharply.

“Hina thinks it’s because Tashigi-san only wears her hair in a bun.” Hina twisted the portion of Tashigi’s hair she held upon itself. Ironically putting it into a small bun. “It looks so pretty down.” She brushed the portion she’d left down over Tashigi’s shoulders.

Hina had pulled the upper half of Tashigi’s hair out of her face and into a small bun. The rest tumbled past Tashigi’s exposed shoulder blades. The slight waves in her black hair were on display.

“Nothing wrong with a sensible hairstyle.” Tashigi defended as she straightened.

“Hina thinks that Tashigi-san has a tendency to be too sensible.” Hina said as she repacked her bag. “Even Hina knows that a powerful woman needs to be spontaneous every once and a while.” She smirked at Tashigi. “Which is why Hina tries to set Tashigi-san up on so many dates.” Tashigi furrowed her brow, trying to work out what Hina meant. “Hina is going to tell the boys you’re ready, and then Hina is going on her own date.”

“Hina-san were you trying to get me laid?” Tashigi called after her as the Lieutenant whirled out the bathroom door. “Hina-san?”

Tashigi’s phone vibrated on the counter.

“Tashigi.” The bespectacled detective said as she answered, still looking after the swinging bathroom door.

“Tashigi!” Nami said breathlessly over the phone. Tashigi heard loud music in the background and yelling. “Luffy! Stop shouting I’m trying to talk.”

“Nami-san?” Tashigi asked, surprised. “How’d you get this number?”

“Zoro forked it over after I lessened his debt.” Nami cackled. “I wanted to ask if you were still coming to my birthday party? I knocked on your door but you weren’t home.” Knocked, ha. The woman most definitely picked the lock when Tashigi hadn’t answered.

“Sorry, I’m at work right now.”

“Honestly Tashigi, how can you work on a Saturday? And my birthday no less.”

“I’m only working because it’s a special mission.” Tashigi laughed at the incensed tone in Nami’s voice. “So, I might be a little late.” Tashigi said as she gathered her things off the bathroom counter. “But your gift is in my gym bag.” She peaked at the small gift neatly wrapped in green paper. “So I’ll be there.”

“Oh my god, amazing.” Nami gushed and then turned serious. “You do know that the dress code if fancy casual, right?”

Tashigi glanced down at her short dress.

“Define that please?” Tashigi said nervously. “Just so I know that what I’m wearing now is enough.”

“I don’t want ballgowns or tuxedos.” Nami laughed. “But I want everybody to clean up nice. You hear that Luffy?” Nami’s voice pulled away from the phone. “I want you to scrub and wear your best shirt.” Tashigi could hear Luffy’s whining. “And tell Franky no fucking speedos.”

“You sound busy and if I’m going to make your party I need to get to work.” Tashigi chuckled.

“Fine. Fine.” The orange-haired woman said dismissively. “But don’t be too late. I wanna spend my birthday with my girlfriends. Usopp put that down.”

Tashigi laughed incredulously as Nami hung up the phone. She saved the number as Nami-san and then changed her mind, just Nami.

She pushed out of the ladies restroom and into the lobby to hear the tail end of a very interesting conversation drifting out of the bullpen.

“Hina is telling you now.” She heard the pink-haired woman say in amusement. “You are not going to need that dress for Tashigi-san.”

“C’mon, Hina-chan.” Fullbody scoffed. “Do you remember the last dress she wore undercover? It was a floral monstrosity.”

“He’s got a point, Hina-san.” Koby stuttered. “Tashigi’s fashion taste are rather more comfortable than, er, well, sexy.” Tashigi giggled at the squeak at his last words.

“There is nothing wrong with being comfortable, Koby.” Tashigi said as she stepped into the bullpen.

Why did so many people drop half their shit? She’d dressed up before.

“What the hell?” Jango whispered and dragged his heart-shaped sun glasses down his nose. “Who are you and where is Tashigi-girl?”

“Oh shut up.” Tashigi grumbled. “Helmeppo close your mouth.” The blond snapped his mouth shut with a clop.

“Hina wishes you all a good night.” Hina laughed and patted an awestruck Koby on the back. “Hina has kept Smoker waiting in the car long enough.”

Tashigi waved after the woman’s long pink hair before turning to the four men.

“Fullbody that better not be another dress.” Tashigi sighed as she stared at the black dry cleaner bag in Fullbody’s hands.

“What?” The pink haired man said in a squeaky voice and dropped the bag like it burned him. “What are you talking about? There’s no dress.”

“Uh huh.” Tashigi said skeptically. “Liars.”

“Tashigi,” Koby gapped, “you look so pretty.”

“Aw, thanks, Koby.” Tashigi ruffled his hair.

“I’m always a fan of sugary stuff,” Jango sighed as he approached the two, “but we gotta go. Winston Berry is sucking down whisky sours alone without our beautiful Tashigi to wrench information out of him.”

“Like pulling teeth.” Fullbody added helpfully.

“I already hate the dentist, please don’t make it sexy.” Helmeppo groaned.

“Why are the five of us never productive?” Tashigi asked as she turned around, walked behind Helmeppo and Jango, and pushed them forward. “We have to solve Fullbody and Jango’s case for them.”

“Just because you’re five points up does not mean you get to trash talk.” Fullbody pouted as he and Koby followed the other three out.

“I think it does.”

*********************

“And then I told him I forged his most expensive painting.” Winston Berry wheezed. “You should have seen his face. Ah, I did not get that art deal.”

“That’s crazy.” Tashigi giggled in her false sweet voice and took a sip of her vodka soda. Correction, soda water. Helmeppo, disguised as a bartender, had been serving her fake alcohol for the past three hours. Tashigi had still been sipping them, but putting on a touchy tipsy act with Winston Berry.

The man was shorter that her, especially in her heels, and well-dressed; three-piece suit and a pocket hankie. His reddish brown hair was parted on the side and slicked down. He looked very dapper…for a slimeball.

Tashigi’s jaw clenched as Winston Berry’s hand landed on her knee. Fifteenth time in three hours. Tashigi smiled sweetly and then crossed her legs, effectively knocking Berry’s hand off her knee.

Winston Berry thought she was a pretty but dim party girl name Birdy and Birdy liked it when he touched her.

The man was a lonely, self-inflated slimeball who liked to listen to himself speak. Tashigi had no problem getting him to start talking about his illegal activities the moment she sat down next to him.

“So do you only forge art or do you like forge other things?” She asked innocently.

“Eh, I do pedestrian stuff like IDs and money.” The man said dismissively. “But the art is where the real skill is.”

“It must take a lot of money to forge painting that good.” Tashigi simpered. “Where do you get the money?”

“Oh, don’t you worry about that, baby doll.” Winston Berry patted her hand patronizingly. “I’ve got access to some bank accounts and identities that keep me well supplied.”

“Oh?” Tashigi slurred falsely, hoping that a pretend state of intoxication would loosen his tongue around her. “Where’d you get those from?”

“Well.” Berry leaned forward to whisper conspiratorially to her, when a hand grabbed Tashigi’s shoulder and jerked her back in her seat.

Startled, Tashigi reached into her clutch where she’d stashed a small knife just in case. Shigure was secured to a nervous Koby’s belt across the room. Her fingers curled loosely around the hilt of the knife as she focused on who’d grabbed her.

The man who clutched her shoulder was tall and pale with curly dark brown hair and unfocused ice blue eyes.

“Uh? Can I help you?” Tashigi said in her breathy Birdy voice.

“You.” He said, unfocused. “I know you.”

“I’m Birdy.” She giggled nervously. She caught Fullbody’s hard, concerned gaze. She gave a slight shake of her head.

“Nah.” The man slurred. “You’re Detective Tashigi from the G-5.”

Tashigi froze.

“You seem to be mistaken.” She gritted, teeth clenched in her grin. “I don’t know you.”

“No, no, I was supposed to go on a date with you.” He slurred. “You didn’t look this good in the picture.” He raked an appreciative and gross gaze up Tashigi’s seated form. Her knuckles tightened around the hilt of her knife in her clutch. Even if her wasn’t a threat, she wanted to break his face for that look alone.

Well, under the worst circumstances in the world Tashigi had met her blind date Gregor Balthazar and she was six seconds from putting her heel up his ass.

“Hey, Balthazar, buddy.” A dirty blond man appeared at the curly haired man’s shoulder. “Let’s not interrupt these nice people’s date. Sorry, lady.”

He dragged his friend away and Tashigi counted to ten before she turned back to Winston Berry. He stared at her in confusion and suspicion.

“So, what were you saying?” She giggled nervously and leaned on her hand like her cover had not been blown.

“You’re a cop.” Winston Berry pouted and slumped into his seat. “I knew it was too good to be true.”

Tashigi weighed her options.

“Yes, fine.” Tashigi hissed and scooted her chair sharply toward the man. “I’m a detective and I want information.” Winston Berry opened his mouth, but Tashigi pressed a harsh finger to his lips. “I don’t want you. We already have you. You are the least subtle forger I’ve ever seen, Mr. Winston. We got you draining bank accounts left and right to fund your forging. What I want is the names of the people in the group that gave you the identities and account information, understand?”

Winston Berry nodded vigorously and Tashigi removed her finger from his lips. He was strangely flushed and grinning.

“I’ll tell you everything.” He breathed and leaned toward her eagerly.

“That was easy.” Tashigi quirked her brow.

“This is the best date I’ve been on in weeks.” The man gushed. “Plus I like a powerful woman. Can I touch your leg again?”

“Do that and I’ll break your fingers.” Tashigi said sweetly. The next man who touched her when she didn’t want them to would be put in the hospital. Grabbing and squeezing like she was a gods damned blow-up doll.

“Oh god yes.” Winston Berry said breathlessly. “Do it again.” Great, a glutton for punishment. Where was Hina-san when you needed her?

“Hold that thought.” Tashigi grimaced and waved Jango over.

“What’s up?” He asked, concerned. His hand was idly resting behind his back, where Tashigi knew his gun was concealed.

“A legal pad and a basket of onion rings.” Tashigi said with a disgusted press of her lips. “Mr. Winston wants to talk.” Winston Berry nodded enthusiastically.

“That explains the legal pad, but the onion rings?” Jango drawled in question.

“I’m going to need some incentive to deal with him.”

“Coming up.”

********************

“You know what’s real sad?” Tashigi sighed as the squad car with Winston Berry rolled away. Jango and Fullbody leafed through the man’s very verbose confession about the group of identity thieves. “That was not my worst date.”

“Why?” Helmeppo asked as he forked over her gym duffle and a white paper bag of onion rings. “Because you got two orders of free onion rings out of it.”

“Yeah.” Tashigi said with a smile. “But at the academy there was a guy who though the height of romance was taking me to the vending machines in the dorm basement.”

“That sounds awful.” Koby said as he handed back Shigure.

Tashigi caressed her sword’s hilt happily. She hated undercover missions. They always made her go in without Shigure, because apparently it wasn’t ‘believable’ that a ‘normal’ woman would carry around a sword. Without her sword belt, Tashigi let Shigure dangle by her side in her left hand.

“Helmeppo, remind me to put that on the list.” Koby added.

“Gotcha.”

“What? Do you have a list of terrible dates not to take a girl on?” Fullbody scoffed.

“Don’t sound so derisive.” Helmeppo defended. “We get most of them from you three.”

“Hey.” Tashigi said indignantly. She did not take people on terrible dates, they took her on terrible dates. Succubus Tashigi and Swordswoman Tashigi agreed, if her pseudo baby brothers just asked Zoro then they’d know. Saint Tashigi reminded them that it hadn’t been a date.

“He didn’t mean that, Tashigi.” Koby placated. “You just go on really terrible dates.”

“Okay.” Tashigi said with finality and wrinkled her nose in irritation. “I’m going home. We got done early and I have better things to do.” Like attend a party and maybe enjoy it.

“Now, hold your horses, Tashigi-baby.” Jango said and threw an arm across her chest. His arm squished against her breasts not trapped by a sports bra and he withdrew his arm, shaking it like he’d touched something gross. “ Not used to those things actually being there.” He muttered, but continued. “Uncle Fullbody and I want to talk to you.”

“Oh god, this is gonna get gross.” Helmeppo groused.

“Scram kiddies.” Fullbody made shooing motions. “The grown-ups are talking.”

“We have plans anyway.” Koby said quickly and pushed Helmeppo away.

“What’s up?” Tashigi asked as her two weird uncles stood in front of her.

“I,” Jango said dramatically, “have had a vision.”

“You’re a hypnotist, Jango, not a psychic.” Tashigi said sarcastically as she raised one eyebrow skeptically. Where were they going with this?

“Fine, Miss. Specifics.” Jango huffed. “I have hypnotized myself into having a vison about your evening tonight.”

“Oh, really?”

“Stop interrupting.” Fullbody scolded and Tashigi rolled her eyes.

“You,” Jango postured and reached into his jacket pocket, “are going to get laid tonight.” He whipped four foil wrapped condoms from his inner jacket pocket and slapped them into Tashigi’s limp hand.

“Eh?” Tashigi gapped as she stared at the condoms.

“Look, Tashigi.” Fullbody said and he wound an arm around her shoulders. “You’re all dressed up and this is a bar popular with men your age. Get some dick, for the sanity of the entire precinct.”

“What’s that mean?” She asked, offended. What did her having sex have to do with the precinct?

“It means,” Jango said kindly and threw his arm around her shoulders as well, effectively locking her between them, “that if you had some consistent sex in your life, you wouldn’t camp out in the precinct breakroom on a weekend and be a little in the way. Nor would you ask Garp everyday if he’s heard back from Sentomaru. Not that we don’t love your dedication to the job, it’s just getting a little intense.”

“Yeah, take it easy every once and a while.” Fullbody patted her back. “Okay?”

“Pfft.” Tashigi scoffed. “You are both so rude.” Having sex wouldn’t make her less intense about her job, please, she wasn’t that distractible.

“Glad you understand.” Jango pinched her cheek. “Go get some.” He and Fullbody shared reassured and congratulatory nods, then turned to leave.

“Where are you going?” Tashigi asked.

“Um,” Fullbody scrunched his brow, “We have a life, Tashigi-girl.”

“Yeah,” Jango agreed, “we can hold your hand forever. You gotta trap a man yourself. We have dinner plans.”

“With women?” Tashigi asked in shock, they usually mentioned new love interests.

“With each other. Friendships need dates too ya know.” Fullbody scoffed. “Now go get laid.” He ordered.

Tashigi gapped as the two older men walked off towards their car.

Order her around and just leave her, the nerve. Tashigi stamped her foot petulantly. Well, she wasn’t going to go back into _The Tropicana_. Not when she had no wingmen and a better party to go to.

She slid the four condoms into her clutch.

At least it was only 8:45pm.

*******************

Tashigi debated the best course of action as she stood at the entrance of her street.

Nami’s party was in full swing.

A makeshift dance floor, complete with kaleidoscope flashing lights, had been constructed at the entrance of the street. Brook was DJing. Tashigi was sure the Soul King would have liked to put on a live show, but Nami was in charge tonight.

She couldn’t see much beyond the gyrating people.

Tashigi awkwardly fished Nami’s present from her gym bag. She held the present and Shigure defensively in from of her, then took a deep breath and plunged into the sea of happily dancing people.

She stumbled out the other side and gasped like a diver coming up for air. Tashigi adjusted her glasses, which she’d put back on during the bus ride home, pulling herself together and looked around.

The weird circle of couches had been set up in the middle of the street again and further down Tashigi could see the makeshift bar from the previous party. Seriously, were did they keep all these things? Tashigi’s underground garage theory was looking better and better.

The strap of Tashigi’s gym bag cut into her shoulder. She decided to find Nami, give her the gift, then dump her stuff and return. Shigure would have to be left in her apartment too, just when they’d been reunited.

Tashigi heard Nami’s bubbly laugh over the crowd as she got closer to the ring of couches. The orange-hair woman sat on a red plaid couch with Robin, Kaya, and a bright blue-haired woman Tashigi was startled to recognize as Nefertari Vivi.

Tashigi scanned the area for the other Strawhats. Jinbe was over at the bar with Franky, with Sanji cooking right next to the large blue-haired man. Zoro, Usopp, and Chopper lounged on the couch’s matching red plaid loveseat. Luffy dangled over the couch’s arm, whining about something with Nami.

She seemed to have taken Luffy’s iconic strawhat.

“I told you, Luffy.” Nami giggled as the black-haired young man pouted at her. “I’m the birthday girl, so I get to wear the hat. That was the deal.”

“I didn’t know that it was the deal when you said I didn’t have to get you a present.” Luffy cried. He made to snatch the hat off Nami’s head. She ducked and moved on the couch to put Vivi between them.

“C’mon, Luff.” Usopp laughed. “You should know better than to make a deal with Nami.” Zoro smirked and nodded next to him.

“No insulting the birthday girl.” Nami said imperiously. “Or I’ll have Sanji kick your ass.” As if summoned the blond chef swanned over to the circle of couches.

“Who has insulted my precious Nami-swan?” How could one man’s voice be so loving, yet so threatening.

Tashigi giggled slightly.

“It was Usopp, Sanji-kun. Get him.”

“No, don’t get me.”

“It’s never a dull moment with you guys.” Tashigi laughed as she entered the circle of couches, heading toward Nami.

Again, why did so many people drop half their shit? It was a dress.

“A goddess.” Sanji breathed and there were literal hearts in his eyes.

“No, Sanji-san, it’s me. Tashigi.” She clarified in concern, then turned to Nami. “Happy Birthday.” She held out the neatly wrapped green package. She tucked her white bag of onion rings behind her back and away from Luffy.

“Oh my gosh.” Nami squealed and bounced off the couch, hugging Tashigi forcefully. “This is the best present ever.”

“You haven’t even opened it.” Tashigi coughed as Nami squeezed the life out of her.

“No, silly.” Nami giggled and held her at arm’s length, inspecting her outfit. “You dressed up.”

“You said fancy casual, sooo…” Tashigi trailed off awkwardly.

“Come, sit with me. I want to know where you got the dress.” Nami took the gift and dragged her toward the couch.

“Let me go put my stuff away first.” Tashigi chuckled. “I swear I’ll come right back.”

“You better.” Nami said after considering it for a moment and then releasing Tashigi’s hand. “Come right back or I’ll send one of these dummies after you.” She jerked a thumb at her surrounding male gangmates.

“I promise. I promise.”

Tashigi trotted off, ankles only wobbling slightly in her heels.

She wove through the crowds, crossed her yard, and carefully climbed her stairs.

Tashigi unlocked her door.

She leaned Shigure gently against her wardrobe and placed her clutch on the bedside table. Her dirty clothes from her gym bag were emptied into her hamper by the bathroom door and the bag itself was haphazardly dumped next to it.

Deciding that there was really no need to be wearing makeup, Tashigi stepped into her bathroom and opened the bottle of makeup remover Hina had given her. Glasses pushed into her hair in preparation. She scrubbed her face vigorously with cotton pads and then a wash cloth. She had to go back several times to get the extra stubborn eyeliner.

Feeling more like herself, even with the heels and red skin from scrubbing, Tashigi smiled into the bathroom mirror. Succubus Tashigi agreed, she looked cute even without Hina’s nice makeup. More comfortable too, Saint Tashigi added. More ready for battle, piped Swordswoman Tashigi.

Good point. Good point. The two other aspects agreed.

Tashigi took several steadying breaths before she left her apartment again. Her only possessions being her keys on a stretchy spiral bracelet and her bag of onion rings.

When Tashigi returned to the circle the seating arrangement had changed. A smirking Usopp and amused Kaya sat on the loveseat with a giggling Chopper and Robin. Zoro lounged on the couch next to an empty space besides a roaring Nami and surprised Vivi. Luffy seemed to be dying of laugher over the arm of the couch. The green-haired man was arguing with Sanji, who had a bright blue cocktail on a tray.

Tashigi figured she must’ve just missed one of Usopp’s really good jokes.

“What’d I miss?” Tashigi asked as she came around the couch, hoping the joke would still be funny the second time Usopp told it.

“Well—” Luffy began with a chortle, but Nami slapped a hand over his mouth before he could finished. Tashigi cocked her head, confused. Was it a dirty joke? She could handle those.

“Oh, nothing.” Nami smirked mischievously. “So, where did you get the dress?”

“Ah, the Antique House in Loguetown.” Tashigi said and she delicately sat in the space between Nami and Zoro. Best not to flash her lacy black panties at the Heart gang across the way. “I bought it back in May.”

“Oh, I love the Antique House.” Nami gushed. “They have such cute clothes for a bargain.” Tashigi nodded nervously as Nami’s eyes turned into Beri.

“Tashigi-chan.” Sanji twirled over to her and held out the tray with the tall blue cocktail. “This is for you. It’s a Blue Lagoon.” The colors of the drink were clearly intended to match her dress.

“Oh, thank you, Sanji-san.” Tashigi said gratefully as she accepted the drink.

“Sanji,” Nami said, “make me a drink to match my dress too.” She gestured to emerald green dress and heels she wore. The dress had a halter style neckline that exposed Nami’s back and generous chest. “If fact, one for every girl.” She gestured to the three other women.

“Yes, Nami-swan.” The cook twirled away. Tashigi wasn’t even drunk and she could see hearts coming off him.

“Nami, hat.” Luffy whined and occupied all of Nami’s attention.

“Hi.” Vivi said sweetly as she leaned around Nami. “I’m Vivi.”

“Tashigi.” She said nervously and shook the woman’s extended hand.

“Lovely to meet you and how do you know Nami?”

“Er, I’ve arrested her.” Tashigi winced. She really had to stop saying that. Zoro snickered behind her.

“What?” Vivi said confused.

Thank meito that Nami came to her rescue.

“Tashigi is a detective.” Nami said as she pulled away from punishing Luffy. The young man bounced over to whine at Zoro. “A good one. Actually, I think she was in Alabasta when we were, right?”

Tashigi gulped as Vivi’s eyes narrowed. The Grandline Highway patrol hadn’t been too effective in curbing Crocodile’s influence in Alabasta.

“No need to look so suspicious, Vivi-san.” Came Robin’s cool voice from the love seat. “Tashigi-san worked very hard to take down Baroque Works.”

“Oh, well, then it’s absolutely wonderful to meet you.” Vivi’s smile was blinding.

“And you as well.” Tashigi coughed.

Sanji returned with drinks and Tashigi released a shaky breath as attention was turned away from her. She shot Robin a grateful look and the older woman smiled as calm and serene as always.

Tashigi idly sipped her drink—delicious as usual Sanji—and turned to Zoro.

He had one arm stretched across the back of the couch and he lazily sipped from his own large bottle of booze. Tashigi squinted, rum again.

“I thought Nami-san said the dress code was fancy casual?” Tashigi asked ribbingly as she leaned back into the couch. Zoro wore black flat front shorts and a navy blue short-sleeve button up; his swords and red sash at his side.

“These are my formal shorts, Glasses.” Zoro said with a crooked smile and a sideways look. “Best I could do for the witch woman. I even showered.”

“Oh wow.” Tashigi gasped mockingly as she turned her body towards Zoro. “She must be so honored.”

“She better be.” He grumbled. “So besides the party, what’s got you all dressed up?”

“Ah, undercover operation.” Tashigi fidgeted with the hem of the short dress and sipped her drink. “I had to play the charming seductress.” She pressed the back of her hand to her forehead dramatically.

“I bet that went well.” Zoro laughed as he swigged his drink.

“It was terrible.” Tashigi groaned. “My cover got blown by some drunk asshole and I had to, how should I put this, oh yeah, sexually intimidate the guy into giving a confession. Apparently hot and powerful women are a turn on for him. He coughed up the whole thing for a fake forty-five minute date with me. But I got onion rings out of it.” She gleefully held up the bag and opened it.

“You’re not uncomfortable right?” Zoro asked curiously.

“Uncomfortable with what?” Tashigi asked as she munched on an onion ring and sipped her Blue Lagoon.

“Ya know, being all dressed up.” Zoro coughed and scratched his cheek. “I know you don’t normally wear that stuff, so I just want you to know, you don’t have to stay dressed up just because the witch woman wants you too.” He looked very serious.

Tashigi smiled softly at Zoro’s concern. Even Saint Tashigi could agree that it was a good guy move.

“It’s sweet of you to ask, Zoro.” Tashigi chuckled. “But I bought this dress because I liked it and my discomfort only comes from the situation I’m in, not really the clothes. As long as I don’t trip, I’m solid. Plus I already took the makeup off which was like the worst part, do you know how heavy that stuff is? Especially after wearing it for hours.”

“Well, good.” Zoro said with a quirk of his lips, then he cleared his throat and looked slightly away. “You look really nice then.”

Tashigi felt her face heat at the compliment.

“Thank you.” Tashigi said shyly and then handed him an onion ring. “For your kind words.”

“Heh.” Zoro grinned widely. “If I give you more compliments do I get more onion rings?”

“Holy Ronin, you’re not a dog, Zoro.” Tashigi laughed. “But you can certainly try your luck.”

“Challenge accepted.”

*********************

Contrary to popular belief, Tashigi was not a lightweight. Years of drinking with Isuka and her G-5 colleges had caused her to develop a high tolerance.

She also had a system for drinking at parties. Tashigi sipped her drinks slowly, ate lots of food and drank a bottle of water in between each drink. She only felt comfortable getting absolutely trashed with Isuka and her work family.

Although she suspected the Strawhats might get her on that level with them one day too.

Considering how comfortable they made her feel already.

All in all, Tashigi’s alcohol consumption system left her with only a slight buzz at 12:47am, with Nami’s birthday party still going strong.

The only changes to her behavior being more laughter, more comfort touching people, and she called Zoro by his first name.

Tashigi flicked her hair over her shoulder as she grabbed a bottle of water and poured herself a bowl of chips at the snack table.

Zoro. He’d been eating her snacks. Showed no signs of drunkenness, even as he polished of bottle of rum after bottle of…well anything, the man was not picky with his alcohol. Yet, as she’d sat next to him his arm had slowly gravitated down to her shoulders as he drank.

Tashigi shook her head and grabbed a can of beer from the coolers under the table. She was imagining things. Besides, that could be his version of drunk.

Tashigi returned to the circle of couches and handed Zoro the can of beer.

“Thanks.” He grunted and popped the tab. “Water and food again?”

“I’m not comfortable enough to get sloshed, Zoro.” Tashigi said as she sipped her water.

“The booze you have consumed is impressive though.” Zoro said as he stole some of her chips. “Higher tolerance than most.” He waved a hand lazily to the drunk party goers around them.

“Garp once said that a cop that doesn’t know how to drink isn’t a cop.” Tashigi chuckled. “Not really the best advice, but he is very old school.”

“Funny.” Zoro snickered and shook his head. “That Garp said that and Luffy fucking hates alcohol.”

The young man had gotten his hat back from Nami and was gleefully dancing with her, Usopp, Chopper, Vivi, and Kaya. They’d asked Tashigi to join, but that was dangerous for Tashigi without heels, so she declined.

“Marimo.” Sanji suddenly skidded to a stop in front of them on the couch. “I need you to go out and buy booze.”

“Like hell.” Zoro scoffed and chugged the rest of his beer. “Get someone else.”

“I’ve already sent out Franky, Robin, and Jinbe.” Sanji scowled. “Just fucking do it, shitty swordsman.”

“You—” Zoro made to launch himself at Sanji, but Tashigi placed a hand on his chest.

“He’ll do it, Sanji-san.” Tashigi assured. “I’ll help.”

“You’re an angel, Tashigi-chan.” Sanji swooned and the glared at Zoro. “Fuck you, Moss head.” He walked back to the bar.

“I can’t believe you just caved to the Ero-cook.” Zoro scoffed.

“Oh, please, Zoro.” Tashigi sighed as she stood and brushed off her dress. “We are not going to the store. I don’t have that kind of money and you most certainly don’t. I have a secret booze stash that should be more than enough to keep Sanji happy until Franky, Robin, and Jinbe get back.”

“Holy Shit, Glasses.” Zoro breathed as he looked at her in awe. “That’s devious.”

“I know.” She grinned and recycled her empty water bottle and chip bowl. “Also, I’m getting tired of these heel, so c’mon.”

“I knew you were uncomfortable, Glasses” She heard him grunt as he pushed himself off the couch.

“I wasn’t uncomfortable.” Tashigi corrected and picked up an empty crate as he strode up beside her. She handed it to him to carry. “I just figure it’d be safer for me in the long run if I plan to drink more.”

“You haven’t fallen yet.” Zoro snickered as they dodged stumbling party goers to get to Tashigi’s apartment. “But you are pretty unsteady in them.”

“It’s the tiny heel.” Tashigi complained and paused at the edge of her fence to lift up her foot and show him the stiletto point. “If it had more surface area I might be okay.”

“No you wouldn’t.” Zoro smirked.

“Oh shut up.” Tashigi huffed and started walking again. “See if I let you have first pick of my secret stash of booze.”

“Ya know,” Zoro said as they climbed the stairs, “I think I would remember you having a secret stash of booze in your apartment.”

“I keep it very well hidden.” Tashigi giggled as she unlocked the door to her dark apartment. Tashigi didn’t turn on any lights, instead using the glow of the street to guide her to her kitchen cabinets.

“Where?” Zoro asked, intrigued, and set the crate on her kitchen table.

“Watch.” Tashigi said and wiggled her eye brows as she crouched to the lower cabinets. There was one, set at a corner juncture that just looked like paneling with no handle. There was a small indentation at the top. Tashigi placed her finger in the indent and pulled the hidden door outwards. “Tada.” Tashigi did jazz hands as rows of full alcohol containers were revealed.

“Holy Fuck, Tashigi.” Zoro muttered as he crouched down and peered into the cabinet. “That’s a lot of booze.”

“Cops only give booze for Secret Santa.” Tashigi said simply.

“I should be cop.” Zoro said seriously as he grabbed several bottles.

Tashigi laughed and joined him.

It didn’t take them long to empty her secret cupboard and fill the crate.

“Is that everything?” Zoro asked as he stood and slid the last bottles of tequila into the crate. Tashigi chewed her lip as she closed the cupboarded and looked around her kitchen.

“I think I have one more bottle of something in the top cabinet.” Tashigi muttered. “Hang on.” She placed one hand on the counter and the other on Zoro’s shoulder to steady herself.

“Careful, Glasses.” Zoro rumbled as he reached his arm up to steady her elbow.

“I’ve got it, Zoro.” Tashigi huffed as she pushed up onto her knees on the counter and opened one of the cabinets. At the top lay a bottle of red wine on its side.

Tashigi stretched up and wrapped her hands around the neck of the bottle.

“See Zoro? I told you—” Tashigi’s knee slipped off the edge of the counter and she tumbled into free air.

Zoro’s arm came up and caught her waist with a grunt. Tashigi’s feet landed jarringly and slid sideways out from under her on the kitchen floor. Zoro caught the wine bottle too.

Tashigi’s face was pressed awkwardly into his chest and her elbows were everywhere. She could feel his rumbling laugher in his chest, under her ear. His shirt smelled like citrus. Limes? And there was his usual smell: salt, steel, and mint. A heady combination that drove Tashigi a little nuts.

Zoro reached over her head and set the wine bottle in the crate, still chuckling.

Tashigi shakily righted her heeled feet underneath her and stood carefully, hands resting on Zoro’s biceps.

“Always a klutz, Glasses.” Zoro smiled as she composed herself.

“I got too good in the damn heels.” Tashigi grumbled and tried to blow her wild hair out of her face. See? This was why she kept all of it in a bun and not just half. “The universe had to correct me.”

“Caught you, didn’t I?” Zoro smirked and carefully brushed her hair from her face. His fingers lingered against her neck.

“That you did.” Tashigi chuckled and realized exactly how close she was.

Zoro’s arm was still wrapped around her waist.

Her chest was pressed to his.

Zoro seemed to realize this too. His eyelid sank and he moved his hand from her neck, fingers leaving a blazing trail along her bare skin, to rest between her shoulder blades. He splayed his finger and pressed his calloused palm flat against her skin.

Tashigi closed her eyes and shivered at the contact.

She opened her eyes and gazed into Zoro’s good one.

Saint Tashigi twittered at her shoulder that kissing him was a bad idea. But just once wouldn’t hurt, right? Succubus Tashigi purred. Just to see what it’s like, Swordswoman Tashigi agreed diplomatically.

Tashigi warred with herself.

She really wanted to kiss him. All the almost kisses had teased her into a frustrated mess. If she had the opportunity, then like hell was she going to let it slip away.

“Oh, fuck it.” She hissed and surged forward.

Tashigi had never been a graceful kisser. Too many boyfriends complained that kissing her was like a fight, that she was aggressive and used teeth. She tried to keep this in mind as her lips pressed against Zoro’s.

She let her eyes flutter closed as she tried not to count the agonizing seconds of stillness from the swordsman’s mouth beneath her own.

Then he responded.

Tashigi gasped as Zoro’s hand fisted in her hair, fingers digging under her half bun. His tongue slid against hers as she opened her mouth. He tasted like rum and salt.

Her hand twisted in the fabric of his shirt as she tugged him closer, with the other she dragged her nails up the back of his neck and threaded her fingers in his short hair.

Zoro groaned and the warm fingers cradling her head tilted it to deepen the kiss.

Tashigi’s thumb brushed the rough stubble along his jaw as she pressed herself into him, into the kiss. She sighed into his mouth as she felt him, the hard planes of his chest under her palm and the cords of muscle in his forearm as it pressed into her lower back,

Never had she been so consumed by a kiss. Thrilled by the movement of his tongue in her mouth and the sharp bite of the kitchen counter into her back as Zoro pressed as close to her as he could get.

Tashigi wanted to know what would happen if she bit his lower lip, when a sudden ringing cleaved through her ears.

“Fuck.” Zoro snarled as her broke the kiss. He roughly disentangled his hand from her hair, causing the elastic of her bun to snap and send all her hair tumbling to her shoulders. “Fuck.” He snarled again as he fished his phone from his shorts pocket. “What the fuck do you want, shit cook?”

Tashigi had no breath. She panted, trying to catch it, but had trouble piecing her mind back together to remember just what she had to do exactly to breathe again. She realized she was still pressed to Zoro, supported entirely by him as her legs seemed to have abandoned her.

She righted herself and removed her hand from Zoro’s face.

Realizing he was on the phone, Tashigi moved to leave his arms, but Zoro pressed her firmly back into his chest. Sanji howled over the phone for Zoro ‘to get his ass back with the booze.’

Tashigi ran an anxious hand through her hair, fluffing the wavy black tendrils slightly, and bit her lip.

She’d kissed Zoro.

He’d reciprocated.

And before they’d been interrupted Tashigi had been about ready to bite his lip and drag her hand down his chest to palm his…

Tashigi blushed at the thought.

“Fucking shitty cook.” Zoro grumbled as he dropped the phone from his ear. “Tashigi?”

“Huh?” Tashigi said, dragged from her flushed musings and fantasies by Zoro’s rough voice. “What’s up?” His furrowed brow pulled the scar over his eye.

“Curly Brows wants me to bring him the booze.” Zoro mumbled. Tashigi cocked her head. Why did he look scared? Or was that nervous? His arm around her tightened. His brows pulled together as he opened, then closed his mouth. Tashigi realized he was trying to think of what to say.

Well Tashigi-girl, she thought, you spearheaded this kiss, might as well lead the rest.

“Do you want me to come with you?” She asked tentatively. “Or, er, do you want me to stay here?” She fiddled her fingers together slightly as she trailed off at the end.

“Stay here?” He rumbled in confusion and cocked his head.

“Er, yes, stay here and wait for you to come back.” She clarified with a cough and looked away as her entire chest and face heated.

“Come back?” He gripped her chin lightly and turned her back to face him, dark eye hard and probing. “Come back and finish this?”

“And more.” Tashigi squeaked and shivered under his intense gaze.

Zoro pressed a searing kiss to her lips then drew away before Tashigi had a chance to even get a purchase on his shoulders.

“Don’t fucking move.” He growled softly and pulled away from her.

Tashigi shivered in the sudden cold of his absence and sagged against her kitchen table as Zoro picked up the full crate of alcohol and whirled out her door.

She slumped sideways against her kitchen table, heaving for breath for several moments before she was jarred to her feet.

Zoro was coming back.

Frantic, Tashigi wrenched off the strappy high-heels and scuttled over to dump them in her wardrobe. She pressed trembling hands to her hot face and let out a shuddering breath.

What are we going to do? Saint Tashigi raged as Succubus Tashigi approached her with rope. We fuck him, of course. Succubus Tashigi responded. I’m in favor, Swordswoman Tashigi agreed, that kiss was like a fight.

What if he wants more? Saint Tashigi hollered as the other two pinned her down. The other two entities froze. Want more how? Succubus Tashigi asked and Swordswoman Tashigi cocked her head. What if he wants to date us?

What if Zoro wanted to date her after this? Tashigi considered. While he didn’t seem the type of man to have a girlfriend, Tashigi couldn’t discount the possibility. Did she want to date him?

Tashigi suddenly thought of Sakazuki’s hard black eyes, of Ace bleeding on the Justice building steps, and of Isuka wailing in horror. She shivered. Dating meant feelings. Feelings meant pain. And Tashigi had enough pain, thank you very much.

Whatever resided in her chest for Zoro was going to stay at lust. She was going to stamp down anything else. All desire for romantic love was ordered to die, she wouldn’t survive it. This one night would be all she’d allow herself. Even if he wanted more, even if she wanted more, this one night would be all they’d get.

Tashigi straightened her back in determination. Even if she didn’t think it would be enough, one night between them would be the limit. She’d sleep with him, get whatever he was doing to her out of her system and move on. Refocus back on work where her priorities needed to be. She would not come crashing down when he eventually lost whatever fascination he had with her and left. She would be strong.

Tashigi released a unsteady sigh as Zoro’s shadow crossed the frost glass on the upper half of her door. Even if it’d be for one night, she could enjoy this. Because it was him.

She tucked a nervous hand behind her ear, pulling hair out of the way, as he slid back into her apartment.

“You moved.” Zoro chuckled as he closed the door behind him. Tashigi stood at the entryway of her bedroom, toes growing cold on the hardwood floor.

“Couldn’t have me impaling myself on my own heels now, could we?” Tashigi breathed as she watched the one-eyed man prowl towards her. Her breath hitched in anticipation as his hand ghosted over her hips.

“No, we can’t.” He murmured as he pressed close and leaned down. Tashigi’s arms automatically wound around his neck. It was comfortable. How she settled against him. Forehead to forehead, nose to nose, chest to chest, hip to…ehm.

Tashigi blushed. Her doubts of his physical attraction to her were certainly dispelled.

Zoro dragged a hand up her body from her hip.

Tashigi’s breath caught in her throat as the velvet fabric of her dress clung to his hand and shifted upwards with it.

Zoro’s hand cupped her cheek and traced his thumb over her lower lip.

He kissed her deeply, tongue slid into her mouth as she opened it eagerly to him. Tashigi moved her tongue over his own as he squeezed her hip in a bruising hold.

She didn’t mind.

Tashigi dragged her teeth along his bottom lip and nipped lightly.

“Fucking aggressive.” He chuckled roughly around her mouth. Tashigi bit his lip harder and his chuckle turned into a hard groan. She dragged her blunt nails along the ridge of his shoulder, up the back of his neck, and into his short, soft hair. She liked the way in made him growl into her mouth.

Zoro sucked her bottom lip into his mouth and Tashigi felt her knees buckle. His lips left her mouth and Tashigi breathed a needy whine that quickly hitched into a startled gasp as Zoro kissed along the edge of her jaw to suck the pulse point underneath her ear. Tashigi’s eye rolled back and dug her fingers harder into the man’s green hair.

Her underwear was really becoming quite damp with all the stimulation.

His arm moved to support her lower back as the pair stumbled backwards into Tashigi’s bedroom. Zoro mouthed her neck, hot open kisses that cause goosebumps to erupt across her flesh.

The back of Tashigi’s legs hit the edge of her bed as one of her hands disappeared down the back of Zoro’s shirt. Her other had fumbled with the tiny buttons down the front as Zoro nipped her collar bone slightly.

She squeaked and shuddered at the sensation. Her knees finally told her she was on her own and Tashigi tumbled back onto her bed, pulling Zoro with her by his half undone shirt.

Zoro chuckled against the side of her neck as he adjusted to the new position and pulled his arm out from under her to run his fingers up her thigh and gripped her ass. He moved himself so his weight wasn’t on her—as it had been when she dragged him down—and knelt more comfortably between her legs.

Tashigi had just about gotten Zoro’s shirt off his shoulders when his lips crashed into hers again. She moaned as the force pressed her into the bed. Tashigi felt the shirt being removed from under her grasping hands as Zoro took it off and tossed it somewhere behind him.

Hands splayed and shamelessly mapping out the nicks and muscles on his back and chest, Tashigi tilted her head, deepening the kiss, and pressed closer to the man. Zoro’s hand raised to her chest and ghosted her breasts. Calloused fingers danced along the neckline of her dress and traced the scars along her shoulders and collar bones. Thumb brushed repeatedly over the twisted bullet scar on her shoulder.

Tashigi dragged slender fingers down the large diagonal scar on his chest before she slipped them around the button and zipper of his shorts.

“Shit, Glasses, hold on.” Zoro hissed, breaking the kiss with a sudden pop, and clamped a hand down on hers.

“What? Why?” Tashigi panted, impatient. She wasn’t very good at waiting, especially considering just how turned on she was and considering how long it’d been since she had sex. Seriously, it’d been over a year, what on earth could be holding Zoro up?

Oh wait. Tashigi’s eyes went wide. Protection.

“Don’t worry Zoro I have that.” She said quickly. “Just let me…” He still had her hand trapped, ironically enough cupped against his dick. Tashigi made to sit up and reach her other hand across him to get her clutch on the bedside table.

Tashigi being Tashigi, meant that it didn’t work out the way she intended.

She elbowed Zoro across the face.

“Fucking hells.” He grumbled as he fell back on his heels and clutched his nose.

“Oh shit, Zoro.” Tashigi winced and quickly forgot about the condoms. “I’m so sorry.” She gathered her knees under her and fluttered her hands over his, trying to get him to let her see. She should probably turn some lights on, but the light of the party out her window was still bright enough.

Mirth swam in Zoro’s eye as he moved his hand to let her look.

“You’re an absolute menace, Four Eyes.” Zoro chuckled and Tashigi inspected his nose with concern knitting her brows. There was no blood and it wasn’t crooked. In fact the only crooked thing was his grin.

“I know.” Tashigi groaned and dropped her head briefly to his chest in humiliation. “I guess the mood is probably dead, huh?” She sighed as she lifted her head. So much for her one night. Even Saint Tashigi groaned in disappointment. Good girls need pleasure too.

“Before I address that,” Zoro sighed, “what were you try to do before you assaulted me?” Teasing smirk, but his eye looked serious.

“Ah, well, I figured you probably stopped me because you though we didn’t have protection.” Tashigi explained as she stretched over and snatched her clutch off the bedside table. Her dress had been hiked up significantly and she could feel the cool air against her damp underwear. Black lace monstrosity, cotton would be better insulation and less itchy. “But we do.”

Tashigi awkwardly extracted the four foil wrapped condoms out of her clutch and held them up to Zoro’s face.

“Why were these in your purse?” Zoro asked with a chuckle as he took the sheaf of four condoms from her.

“Jango and Fullbody gave them to me earlier. They wanted me to get laid.” Tashigi grumped as she remembered the circumstances. “Apparently, I’m a nuisance around the precinct and they want me to ‘take the edge off’, as if.” She scoffed.

“Been a while, has it?” Zoro asked curiously.

“Over a year.” Tashigi growled in frustration. She looked away from him as her cheeks flushed.

“Well, I am sorry about that.” Zoro laughed. “But I didn’t stop you because of that, Tashigi.”

She looked up at the use of her name. Zoro’s face was set with a serious line of his mouth and concerned pucker of brows.

“Oh?” She asked nervously. Had she misread the situation? Was he not ready? Stupid Tashigi for assuming he was down for sex just because he kissed you. “Did you not want to?”

“Believe me, Tashigi, I more than want to.” Zoro huffed and Tashigi flushed at the admission. “It’s just…do you?” He winced slightly and grimaced at how his words trailed off.

“Did I seem unenthusiastic?” Tashigi asked, confused, and plopped back on her heels. She thought she’d been _very_ clear.

“No, Tashigi,” his laugh was a mix of mirthful and exasperated, “look, don’t take this the wrong way.”

“That always starts us off well.” Tashigi said sarcastically.

“Don’t I know it.” Zoro grumped. “But don’t yell at me yet. I asked because you’ve been drinking.” Oh the nerve of this man, assuming she wasn’t in her right faculties.

“So have you.” Tashigi exploded a little. “Way more than me. I know you don’t get drunk, but still. Would you like me to drink another bottle of water? Would that make you comfortable enough to fuck me?” Tashigi panted as she tried to get herself back under control. Being horny made her more impatient.

“Cool your jets, woman.” Zoro snickered and eyed the way she rubbed her thighs together. Tashigi blushed, not even realizing she’d been moving, and her breathing stuttered at the carnal look in his eye. “I’m just saying, wanting to fuck me seems a little unexpected coming from you, Tashigi.”

“Oh.” Tashigi understood. He couldn’t comprehend why the uptight detective who always seemed annoyed with him would want to sleep with him. He just wanted to make sure she was in her right mind. What did he consider their almost kisses then? Or their actual kisses?

“So, why you doin’ it?”

“Because I want to.” Oh, she liked surprising him. The way his eyebrows raised and his lips quirked in a small, startled smile. “I mean, it’s a party, right? You’re supposed to let loose at a party and I haven’t had sex in a while and I thought that just one night wouldn’t hurt.” She trailed off, hoping her simplified version of her thought process didn’t sound as lame to him as it did to her.

“Just one night, huh?” Zoro mumbled and Tashigi heard something in his voice that she didn’t understand. She’d gotten better at deciphering his emotions and this one sounded…regretful? Annoyed? Gods, maybe she hadn’t gotten better.

Tashigi nodded and chewed her bottom lip.

“Why me?”

“I trust you.” It fell so simply and so naturally from her lips that she even surprised herself. She did trust him. He’d never hurt her intentionally. Whatever pain could happen between them, he wouldn’t do it on purpose. Somehow, someway, he’d become someone safe to her.

“Don’t know why?” He mumbled with a faint pink tint to his tan cheeks and scrubbed a hand across the back of his head. “Four condoms, eh?” He said with a wicked grin after a couple of tense moments. “I can work with that.” He straightens off his heels and towered shirtless slightly over her.

“How much stamina do you think I have, Zoro?” Tashigi asked with a breathless gasp as her eyes travel up the ridges the muscles of his abs and chest, thrown in sharp relief by the dark of her room and the gleaming lights out in the streets.

“Enough for your invasive coworkers to give you four condoms for one night.” He grinned wolfishly and shook the shiny foil in her face.

“Their philosophy is twice in the evening and twice in the morning.” Tashigi giggled in embarrassment as she raised onto her knees. She shuffled toward Zoro and hooked her fingers in his belt loops.

“Is that yours?” Zoro’s breath ghosted her mouth as Tashigi nimbly undid the button on his shorts and unzipped him.

“Depends on the man.” Tashigi whispered and slid a hand into his shorts to grip his dick.

Warm and firm in her hands. She liked the way it made him suck in a deep breath.

“That’s a challenge, Glasses.” He growled, strained, and threaded a hand in her hair and tilted her head to kiss her, tongue diving deep into her mouth.

Tashigi would enjoy nothing more than kissing him, but she needed to focus.

She broke the kiss and set her determined gaze on his dick as she pushed his shorts and boxers down his hips to expose him more. Tashigi tried not to stick her tongue out the side of her mouth as she gripped him at the base and stroked upwards; she was rusty with the whole handjob thing.

Tashigi picked up her pace, maintaining a firm but gentle hold on his dick. Zoro dropped his head onto her shoulder with a groan and watched her hand move up and down his shaft. He grabbed her other, slightly useless, hand and positioned it against his balls. He showed her how to roll them in her hand.

Tashigi was exhilarated at the clench of his jaw against her shoulder and the sharp pants against her throat. She wanted to undo him more, plus her hands would probably do a better job with a little lubricant.

Spit wasn’t ideal, but it’s what she had. Plus, a blowjob might actually break the normally stoic man. Something she’d quiet enjoy seeing.

Tashigi snickered darkly as she bent low over Zoro’s dick.

She pressed her lips against his head and then slid his shaft down her throat.

There was a slight salty tang of precum as she adjusted to the sensation of dick in her mouth.

She sucked deeply.

“Fuck.” Zoro hissed above her and she felt the fingers tangled in her hair tighten. Feared Demon Swordsman at her mercy now.

Tashigi sucked him again until he hit the back of her throat. His hips move slowly as she pressed her tongue to the underside of his dick and continued to suck, letting him hit the back of her throat each time.

Zoro suddenly tugged her off his dick.

She panted and whipped the saliva from her lips.

“We’re gonna be done way too quick if you keep going, Glasses.” He rasped. “Plus, I don’t think you’d enjoy it if I rammed my cock down your throat.” Smart man, Tashigi thought as she blushed at his vulgar words. “Don’t go all red on me now, woman, not after what you’ve been doin’. Besides, you’ve got too many clothes on.”

“Don’t you dare ruin this dress, Zoro.” Tashigi shivered as his eyes darkened and roved her body.

“Don’t worry, as tempted as I am to rip it off you, I rather like it.” He growled and hooked his fingers under the thin straps and dragged the clinging fabric down her body.

With the same efficiency, her reached up and snapped the clasps of her bra off her back.

With a startled gasp Tashigi reflexively covered her chest, to hide her peaking nipples from the sudden cold, and flopped onto her back on the bed.

“Shy, Glasses?” Zoro asked curiously as he dropped her dress and bra, along with his boxers and shorts, onto the floor.

She wouldn’t intimidated by his sudden nudity. The man clearly didn’t seem to care.

“It took me thirty minutes to get that thing on and in less than a minute you just…unbelievable. The world is rigged.” Tashigi huffed and removed her hands from her breasts.

He laughed as he knelt on the bed next to her.

She sucked in a sharp breath as she felt a finger pressed against the lace covering her core. Zoro dragged the finger lazily up until he hit the waistband of her panties. His other hand splayed across her stomach, then crawled up to grip one of her breasts in his hand.

Tashigi writhed and huffed as the thumb of his hand in her underwear pressed against her clit while the other thumb circled her nipple lazily. She clenched her jaw and bucked against Zoro’s hand, trying to get him where he needed to go.

“So impatient.” Zoro snickered and pinched her nipple. When he gave a sharp tug, Tashigi reached up and buried her fingers in his hair. She yanked him down on top of her.

“You’re such a jerk.” Tashigi panted between kisses as the green-haired man laughed into her mouth, reorienting himself to kneel between her legs and hover over her. “It’s rude to tease.”

“Don’t you always call me a caveman?” Zoro said against her skin as he nipped down her neck. His thumb rubbed her clit again and again as another finger stroked the folds of her labia. “Can I leave marks?”

“Yes.” Tashigi growled as she dragged her nails from his scalp to his shoulders. The hand that fondled her breast pinched her nipple again and she arched her back.

Zoro smirked against her skin before putting a piercing bite at the juncture of her neck and shoulder. Tashigi cried out breathlessly and dug her nails into his shoulder as he lathed his tongue over the spot. He sucked and nipped down her chest to wrap his mouth around her other nipple.

She keened as he used his teeth to graze and tug her nipple.

Tashigi tried to grind against his fingers, to get them to go in, so she just get some kind of…ugh. She clenched her jaw and released a frustrated snarl.

“Tell me what you want, Tashigi.” He said around her nipple and sucked.

“I—You—use—goddamn—fuck!” Tashigi panted as her overstimulated brain tried to register the pressure on her clit and nipples. Tashigi sucked in all the breath she could muster and put herself together long enough to blurt out: “Use your fingers, you fucking asshole.”

Tashigi clenched as he slipped a finger inside of her.

Zoro’s breath inhaled sharply against her sweaty skin.

Tashigi drew a long scratch up his back as he pumped the lone finger inside of her. Thumb still pressed to her clit. She grinded against his hand as the finger curled inside of her.

Zoro sat back on his heels and Tashigi whined at the loss of skin. He fisted a hand in her lacy black underwear and yanked them down her legs. There was a faint ripping noise and Tashigi glared at him; those had been a very expensive, if itchy, gift they better be salvageable.

He hauled her up his thighs as he inserted another finger into her slick folds. Tashigi gasped and moaned as she placed her hands against his abs. She traced his scars and tried to find purchase as she clenched around his fingers.

She became warm and her skin tingled as she watched Zoro’s half-lidded eye gaze at his fingers thrusting into her. She’d never seen a man look so concentrated. He was sweating. Tashigi hadn’t even seen him sweat in training.

The grip on her ass was bruising as Tashigi clenched and rolled her hips upwards.

Zoro slid a third finger into her and plucked her clit. He squeezed her ass and dragged his hand up her skin to pinch and tug her nipple again.

Tashigi suddenly felt very hot and dug her nails into the sides of Zoro’s chest. She bit her lip and pressed her head back into the mattress as her vaginal muscles spasmed and clenched.

Zoro removed the third finger and gently thrust the remaining two into her as she rode her orgasm.

Tashigi caught her breath as Zoro removed his fingers. She panted and stuttered as he eased her hips off his thighs.

She laughed as he brushed some sticky hairs from her face.

“It’s a lost cause, Zoro.” She panted and sat up slowly. Orgasms always made her muscles feel lose and tired, but she couldn’t stop just yet, besides she ached for just a little bit more.

“I know.” He said simply as he watched her crawl over to where the four condoms had been dropped onto her comforter. Tashigi ripped one off and dumped the rest on her nightstand. She removed her glasses as well, having discovered long ago they fogged during actual sex.

“Do you want to put it on or shall I?” Tashigi asked as she tore the foil package open.

“You, Little Miss Business.” He chuckled and shuffled over to her.

“Shut up.” She huffed, red faced, and made eye contact as she rolled the condom over his dick. He grinned cockily and pushed her flat on her back into her pillows.

Zoro rubbed her clit and tested her wetness with his fingers. He hovered over her, adjusted her knees thrown over his hips and planted one hand on her hip and the other by her head, and lined his dick up with her entrance.

Zoro pushed in slowly and Tashigi released a shuddering breath as her eyes rolled back in her head. She clawed at his shoulders when he stilled and waited. She kissed him hard and begged him to just fucking move, as she felt every ridge of his dick sheathed inside her.

“Fuck.” He breathed as he pulled out and thrust back in just as deep. “Fuck.”

He pressed her into the mattress as he picked up the pace.

Tashigi locked her heels behind his back, high on his hips and she panted Zoro’s name incoherently. Her fingers dug into the back of his shoulders as his nails press into her ass as his hips slammed against hers.

“Shit, Tashigi.” He groaned as she rocked her hips back against his rhythmic rough pace. She felt the red flush creep up her chest, neck, and face as she caught his lone dark eye. Concentrated. Fierce. Raw.

Tashigi felt like someone struck an exposed nerve as she arched her back and wrapped a hand around the wrist planted by her head. Her other hand rubbed up and down his chest as he thrust and panted above her. Slender fingers tranced his scars and made his jaw clench in strain.

Zoro hit a spot inside her that made her gasp and clench. She didn’t care about the ungainly noises ripped from her throat as she met his thrusts.

Tashigi tried the memorize everything. The feeling of being stretched around him. The slick rapid snap of his hips against hers. The pressure of his thumb on her clit. The harsh kiss pressed against her mouth as heat built in her stomach. His hair between her fingers.

She pulled him close, so he was practically crushing her. Didn’t care that it pressed him painfully deep or that it made her moan his name in reverence.

Her legs tightened and she clenched.

Then her breath rushed out with a gasp.

Tashigi felt Zoro stiffen. His hand dug into her hip and clenched in her hair. His thighs trembled against her own as he cursed into her neck with the last few pumps of his hips.

They sank against each other panting.

Tashigi had one hand limply holding his side while her other arm was thrown across his neck. Her chin rested on his sweaty shoulder as she took shuddering breaths. Zoro’s stroked her sides languidly as he rested his forehead against her collar bone. He was soft inside her.

Gently, Zoro unhooked her heels from over his back and slid out of her.

Tashigi exhaled sadly at the absence and slowly pushed herself up on trembling arms. She watched Zoro tug and tie off the condom in her bathroom doorway.

“We should shower.” Tashigi sighed as she stumbled out of bed. “Or at least pee.”

“Nah, we should sleep.” Zoro smirked as he dropped the condom into the wastebasket.

“Pee first, no UTIs.” She closed the door on his cocky smirk and went about her business.

Zoro had made himself comfy in her bed when she returned.

“You better be wearing underwear.” Tashigi grumbled sleepily as she dug a fresh pair of cotton panties and oversized sleep shirt from her drawer.

“Yup.” He chuckled tiredly from beneath her comforter.

“Good, you caveman.” Tashigi mumbled as she crawled under the covers and sought his heat source.

“So rude, Tashigi.” He yawned into her hair and wrapped his arms around her. “Just sleep.” He planted a soft kiss on her forehead.

Tashigi drifted off, musing that the tender kiss to her forehead was the best kiss of her life.

*******************

They needed to talk about it, Tashigi decided as she showered.

It had just been a one-time thing, well two-time thing. He’d woken her up a 4:42am to ask if it still counted as the same night if it was still dark out. Tashigi, the sucker and desperate to feel him again, agreed.

It had been the same bruising pace as before and Tashigi learned that her leg could rest comfortably against his neck as they moved urgently together. Her gamble with gymnastics really did pay off in the strangest ways. They’d fallen asleep together again and woke up much later than either was used too.

She’d let him take the first shower so she could panic.

All three of her shoulder entities were TKO.

There was no one to ask advice from. Just her, alone, with her thoughts.

Tashigi decided to stick with the game plan constructed the previous night.

It would be a one-time, two-time, thing only.

Tashigi nodded to herself in the shower.

They could both be adult about it.

She wrapped a towel around herself as she stepped out.

Tashigi decided the first step in being cool about sleeping together was to spend the day with the Strawhats. Sure she should do laundry and work on her case, but that would be like avoiding him. She just hoped she could control herself enough not to imagine their activities when they sparred. It’d be a whole new problem in concentration.

She finished braiding her hair and smoothed her plain blue t-shirt and black athletic shorts. Regular Tashigi wear, nothing that indicated she’d had sex or had a growing desire to seduce one Roronoa Zoro again.

Tashigi stepped out into her room to talk to Zoro…except he wasn’t sitting on her bed.

She pushed her glasses up her nose and peeked into her living room, not there either. This is what adults do, she guessed dryly, they have one-night stands and then leave. She’d just have to talk to him later. Ah well, She could do laundry.

Tashigi sighed and unenthusiastically gathered her sheets and comforter off her bed. Musk and dried sweat greeted her nostrils, the unsexy part of sexy times. She balled up the comforter and flat sheet in the fitted sheet, then she wrangled the contents of her laundry hamper into a laundry basket.

Hoping slightly, Tashigi pushed the laundry basket with one foot and awkwardly bundled the sheets and comforter in her arms.

“Er, need help there, Glasses?”

Tashigi squeaked in surprise and peeked around her bundle. Zoro stood in her front doorway. He wore a white t-shirt and a pair of forest green basketball shorts. Oh, he’d gone home and changed, that made sense.

“Could you take the sheets?” She mumbled, still a little startled by his reappearance.

Zoro plucked the bedsheets out of her arms and Tashigi bent down and picked up her laundry basket.

“Busy Sunday planned?” He asked with a smirk at her mountain of laundry.

“I’ve got nothing better to do.” Tashigi huffed and carried her heavy basket out the front door. “Well, actually I could work on my cases, but apparently the human thing to do is enjoy your weekends.”

“I’m pretty sure Chopper has instated a rule now that one of us has to come over and check on you once daily.” Zoro chuckled behind her as they tramped down the wooden steps. Tashigi caught her foot twice, as usual. “Franky should really fix these steps.”

“To see if I’ve eaten or slept or died, eh?” Tashigi mused as she hopped over the last step. “I don’t mind the steps. If I trip on them, then I think it offsets some clumsiness I have later in the day.”

“You could die falling down stairs, Tashigi.” How strange, his voice sounded oddly serious. Tashigi considered pressing the issue, but remembered she had her own issues she didn’t liked pressed.

“Nah,” She said airily as she rounded the back of the house to the concrete steps leading down to the cellar, “I already know how I’m going to die. I’m going die at my desk, Captain of my own precinct, and some poor Rookie is going to find my body.”

“You plan on being old when you die? Or are you gonna work yourself into an early grave getting to that Captain’s chair?” Zoro asked as Tashigi struggled to unlock the basement door one handed.

“There’s no need to be truthful, Roronoa.” Tashigi pouted as she entered the cellar. Four washers and dryers lined the cold concrete walls. She waltzed over to the washer and dryer pair with ‘Tashigi’ spelled out in rainbow kitchen magnets on the front.

“I’m serious, Tashigi.” Zoro said as he dumped the bundle of sheets and comforter on the dryer. “Don’t work this weekend.”

“I, truthfully, wasn’t planning on working.” Tashigi sighed in irritation as she grabbed her detergent off the shelf above the washer. It was the same brand her parents had used when she was a child, she’d torn apart Loguetown stores as a teenager looking for it when the last of her clothes had finally lost the smell. A Whiff of Sea Island Cotton, the bottle advertised, and Tashigi didn’t know what any of those things were supposed to smell like normally, because she just referred to it as one word: home. “I wanted to hang out with you guys.”

“Good.” Zoro grunted and they fell into silence as Tashigi dumped her clothes into the washer. The bed things would have to be a separate load.

“Say Zoro?” Tashigi said tentatively as she moved the sheets and comforter into her laundry basket.

“Yeah?” He mumbled distractedly as he leaned against the dryer.

“We’re good, right?”

He turned to look at her, eyebrows raised in surprise.

“About what?”

“About last night.” Tashigi said nervously as she pressed her eyes together behind her glasses, trying not to blush or wince. “Everything’s fine, right?”

“You laid out the rules, Glasses.” Zoro said with a shrug and his usual flat expression. “And I’m okay with them.” She could detect no malic in his voice and his eye held no resentment or desire. Calm, neutral Zoro. It steadied her frayed nerves

“Good. Good.” She sighed to herself and smiled at him. “Good.”

“Worried, were ya?” He snickered and cocked an unscarred eyebrow at her.

“What? No?” Tashigi tittered nervously. Such a liar.

“You were.” Zoro said in surprise. “Why?”

Tashigi opened her mouth to lie again. Then closed it. Was it really fair to him that she wasn’t being honest? No. Zoro went along with her the previous night, she shouldn’t keep lying to save the pitiful shreds of her dignity.

“I like your friendship.” She mused and half smiled over her mound of bed linens to him. “I like sparring with you in the mornings. I like the Strawhats too. How loud and different you all are. Selfishly, I didn’t take that into account last night was I asked for a one-time—"

“Two-time.” Gods, his stupid smug grin.

“Yes, two-time night stand with you. I was bit afraid you wouldn’t want to look at me for a while afterward, because we wouldn’t be the same as before.”

“We feel pretty the same too me.” Zoro said simply. “What about you?”

Tashigi tapped her chin and pressed her lips together in thought. Their encounter earlier hadn’t been awkward, Tashigi had been more surprised than embarrassed. All in all, she felt no tension, if anything she was more relaxed. Like seeing him vulnerable had made him less of a myth and more of a man.

“We feel the same.” She conceded with a small smile and firm nod.

“There ya go, Glasses,” he punched her shoulder lightly, “nothing to be all fidgety about.”

“I’m not fidgety.” She scoffed and kicked at his ankle softly.

“You were chewing your lip like it was your last meal.” Zoro said with a shake of his head as he shifted his ankle from her jabbing foot. “Seriously, woman, chill out.”

“In my defense, Roronoa,” Tashigi chuckled slightly, “last night was me taking a risk and in previous experience, when I take risks it usually goes badly.”

“Then you’re taking the wrong kind of risks.” Zoro looked at her pointedly, mouth carved in a serious line. “A good risk shouldn’t have an option for regret at any outcome.”

“Rich, coming from a man who’s risks land him in the hospital covered in blood.”

“I’ve never regretted.”

Tashigi paused. A good risk was one she didn’t regret. She could count on one hand the risks she didn’t regret—sleeping with Zoro still out for discussion, pending her actions for the rest of the week—and the ones she did hung around her neck like a weight. Perhaps she should calculate her future risks by the Zoro standard.

“I will keep that in mind.” She mumbled to herself.

“It might keep you alive if you do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like these two would be awkward and argumentative even during sex.


	14. July II

“Well, don’t they look friendly?” Smoker growled as he ducked under the police tape. He glared across the rainy street at three groups of brightly colored gangsters. Tashigi jogged and got tangled in the police tape trying to keep her red umbrella over her Sergeant. Smoker hated wet cigars more than anything else.

“Do you think the colors function like poisonous dart frogs?” She asked as they turned down the mouth of the alley. “Warning off predators and such?”

“Doesn’t fucking matter, they’re just scouts.”

Tashigi hummed and looked back over her shoulder at the barely out of teens sitting on three cars across the street. The kids in florescent orange cackled at those in acid green, who snapped back, while the kids in highlighter pink glowered at the flashing cop cars and bright yellow tape.

It was always a surprise when they got a call from deep in gang territory. The particular neighborhood was formerly Whitebeard and currently had no master. Low level gangs would stake a claim to it and squabble amongst themselves, but they’d eventually be bulldozed when larger gangs used the area for showdowns.

The civilians didn’t call the police anymore about gang violence, but at least they still trusted them enough to report un-gang related crimes.

A dead body gutted in an alley counted as un-gang related.

“The rain is making a mess of forensics.” Stevie complained to Dr. Fishbonen from under the hood of her orange raincoat. “And it’s filling my galoshes.”

“It’s not good for the body either.” Dr. Fishbonen sighed and glanced up as Smoker and Tashigi approached. “Are you going to let me take him to my autopsy table?”

“In a minute, what can you tell us so far?” Smoker asked as he crouched over the twisted body.

“Based on lividity, he’s been dead since early this morning.” Dr. Fishbonen said and Tashigi shivered as she joined him and Smoker, keeping the umbrella over the three of them and the dead man.

The man had dirty blond hair and glassy green eyes. A cracked pair of spectacles were twisted under his turned face and blood matted the back of his hair. His shirt and stomach were shredded open. Ripped intestines splayed across the ground and the body.

“It looks like he was mauled by an animal.” Tashigi grimaced, brushing damp hair off her glasses and fruitlessly wiped her wet sleeve on her spotty lenes.

“The Zoo still has all their tigers, Detective.” Dr. Fishbonen said in amusement. Tashigi scrunched her nose and pursed her lips in good humor. “The cuts are too clean for an animal anyway. A person with a knife did this.”

“Why?” Smoker grumbled around his cigars. “Cannibalism? Organ harvesting?”

“He’s got all his organs, that I can see.” Dr. Fishbonen said and parted the shiny red organs with gloved fingers. Tashigi’s stomach roiled, but she kept her lunch down. “No bite marks either.”

“Did the evisceration kill him?” Tashigi asked curiously as she leaned over the body to inspect the bloody patch at the back of the victim’s head.

“Can’t tell yet.” Dr. Fishbonen sighed and leaned back on his heels. “But he was struck on the back of his head.”

“Get him to your table, we’ll meet you there.” Smoker ordered and stood up. Tashigi hastily scrambled to her feet to keep the umbrella over him.

“I’ve got a wallet and cell phone.” Stevie shouted from up the alley. “Driver’s license is for an Anders Gill, he looks like our dead guy.” Tashigi and Smoker leaned over to check the wallet Stevie proffered to them. It was indeed the dead man. The cell phone was cracked and unresponsive.

“Maybe this was a robbery?” Tashigi said as she picked through the plastic and business cards in the wallet with gloved fingers. “He’s been completely cleaned out of Beri.”

“Bit of an overkill for a simple mugging.” Smoker mused as he looked at the body being loaded onto the gurney. “Would you gut a guy for a couple hundred Beri?”

“Depends on what he said to me.” Tashigi remarked in dry amusement.

“Remind me never to cross you.” Stevie chuckled. “I’ll see if I can get prints off it.”

“You think anyone around here saw anything, Sir?” Tashigi asked as Stevie walked away with the wallet in an evidence bag.

“Not that they’d tell us.” Smoker grumbled. “Did you see the address on his license? From above the Divider Strip, what is he doing in this neighborhood?”

“It certainly is fishy.” Tashigi said and shivered as droplets of rain sneaked down the back of her windbreaker and dress shirt. “Autopsy or apartment first?”

“Fishbonen said it’s a slow day, why don’t we follow him to the cold halls of the coroner’s office?”

“I’ll have Koby and Helmeppo sit on the apartment then?”

“Just in case.”

*******************

“Despite the mutilation of his stomach and internal organs,” Dr. Fishbonen said as he probed Anders Gill’s chest cavity, “cause of death was a blow to the back of his head. Most likely by a cylindrical blunt object like a bat or metal pipe.”

“Both are best suited for crimes of opportunity.” Smoker grumbled, Tashigi nodded and tried not to focus too hard on one specific part of the autopsy. While she didn’t hurl like a rookie anymore, Tashigi still didn’t like autopsies—it was mostly because of the noises.

Was focusing on the shredded tangle of the small intestine Dr. Fishbonen had scooped out and plopped into a metal bowl the best idea? Tashigi wasn’t sure, but she was put off eating spaghetti for the week. Weird, lumpy spaghetti with…

Tashigi blinked and cocked her head. Was she seeing things?

“Dr. Fishbonen?” She said slowly and leaned in to take a closer at the small intestine. “There’s something plastic in the small intestine.” She stared at the crinkled bit of plastic poking out of the intestinal tract.

“Really?” Dr. Fishbonen asked curiously and moved over with his latex gloves and scalpel.

“Drugs?” Smoker conjectured. “Would explain why he was in the neighborhood. Those acid green wearing punks sell a lot of heroin.”

“Give me a minute.” Dr. Fishbonen muttered as he carefully cut around the plastic lump. It was about the size of a gumball from one of the machines that used to be in the grocery store when she was younger, which was a disturbing thought. “Smoker, could you hand me the forceps?”

The white-haired man handed over the forceps and watched as the medical examiner plucked the plastic wrapped object from Anders Gill’s stomach lining. Dr. Fishbonen took up his scalpel again and sliced through layers of plastic.

“Holy Shit.” Tashigi breathed as her eyes bugged against her red frames.

Seven pristinely cut diamonds sparkled in the bloody plastic.

“Those are not drugs.” Smoker agreed, “Which just made this case a helluva lot harder.”

“At least we know why he was gutted.” Dr. Fishbonen said with a satisfied nod. “The rest must’ve been in his stomach, explains why it’s mincemeat.”

“Please don’t say things like that, I want to continue to enjoy hamburgers.” Tashigi groaned and clutched her stomach.

“At least we know what to look for when we toss the apartment.” Smoker sighed as he rubbed his forehead.

**************************

“He certainly doesn’t live like a man who smuggles diamonds.” Tashigi commented as she lifted the back off Anders Gill’s toilet, checking the tank for bags of diamonds taped to the side. “This looks like my apartment.”

“Cluttered and in need of a deep clean?” Smoker asked sarcastically from the living room. There was a yelp and a clatter as something tumbled from a kitchen cabinet onto Helmeppo.

“I clean.” Tashigi said indignantly. “I vacuumed last weekend.” She exited the bathroom and pushed open the door to Anders Gill’s bedroom. The most hideous plaid comforter laid on the king sized bed that took up most of the room.

“At 3am,” Helmeppo whined, there was more clattering from the kitchen, “I don’t why you can’t sleep these days but cleaning at the damn crack of dawn is a hate crime.”

“That is not a hate crime.” Smoker grumbled. “It’s just annoying.”

“It wouldn’t be a problem if you slept in your own apartment.” Tashigi shouted at Helmeppo as she pressed herself to the floor to look under the bed. No evidence.

“You know why we couldn’t.” Helmeppo shouted back. “The jackasses across the hall put racoons in our room. It took animal control all weekend to get them out.”

“I hate butting into your weird young people problems,” Smoker growled and Tashigi smiled had how crotchety he sounded, her old Sergeant Father, “but just move out of the dorms.”

“I swear we are trying.”

Tashigi winced as her knees cracked as she stood up. Helmeppo had a slight point. She’d taken to cleaning and working when she couldn’t sleep. She couldn’t sleep with such frequency lately because every time she fell asleep, she had far too steamy dreams about one Roronoa Zoro. Dreams that made her hot and flustered when she suddenly jerked awake.

Manually taking care of herself didn’t cut it anymore, especially since she’d experienced the real thing. So Tashigi tried to clean or work her sexual frustration away. It didn’t work.

What a great plan that had been, having sex with Zoro. Instant gratification on her part indeed. But he was not out of her system, in fact he was probably even more in her system. Tashigi had been fine for the first half week. It wasn’t awkward and she was super focused and productive; Zoro himself had commented on her attention and drive during training. Then her very steamy dreams started and all Tashigi wanted to do again was…well, Zoro.

She didn’t know how many times she could be caught staring at a person, but it was a lot. Tashigi was quite sure that the Strawhats thought she was a freak who just stared at their swordsman and sighed deeply. Zoro most definitely thought she was freak, considering how jumpy she’d become during training.

Tashigi was considering becoming a nun. She clearly couldn’t be trusted with physical attraction.

She rubbed her forehead and sighed. Twisted and stretched her back then picked up a picture frame on the bedside table, it was Anders Gill and a lovely young woman with long dark brown hair and hazel eyes.

“Did Koby get Anders’ phone working again?” Tashigi asked as exited the bedroom, picture still clutched in her hand.

“He said something about sim cards and putting it in a new phone and I tuned him out.” Helmeppo said with a careless wave of his hand over his shoulder. “He said it’ll be in working order by tomorrow.”

“Whatcha got, girlie?” Smoker asked as he set the couch down from where he’d lifted it up to look under it.

“I was just thinking we could ask his girlfriend why he was smuggling diamonds.” Tashigi showed him the photo.

“Perhaps whomever he was selling them to is also in his phone.” Smoker mused as he considered the photo. “Well, this apartment is clean, relatively speaking, and you’ve got paperwork back at the precinct.”

“You mean we have paperwork, right?”

“No, you do.”

“I...Thank you, sir.”

******************

Tashigi was glad Stevie always developed her crime scene photos first. She was especially glad that Stevie was always willing to send over whatever pictures Tashigi wanted to look at.

Tashigi chewed her thumb nail as she looked at the pictures of the diamonds and the body in the alley. Anders Gill had clearly walked into that alley himself; the blood and disturbed trash was contained to the center of the alley. Besides there were City Surveillance Cameras on each street on either side of the alley.

What Tashigi couldn’t understand were the diamonds. The last time she’d encountered diamonds on the job, they’d been uncut stones in the haul of a freighter that had been busted for gun running up and down the New World coast. Somebody had to cut the diamonds before Anders Gill swallowed them, but why and who?

She dragged her gym bag along the pavement of her street as she glared hard at the crime scene photos. They were all she had until Anders’ phone was working and his financial records came back. Either way she was off hamburger meat for a while, and it’d be cereal and oatmeal for dinner.

“Tashigi!”

Tashigi turned her head at the eager call of her name. Nami was waving at her from the Strawhat yard. She and the rest of the group were a little dressy looking and their cars were out. Must be going out to dinner.

“Hey, Nami-san, how are—” Tashigi was cut off as her gym bag, dangling from her arm along the ground, swung around and tangled around her ankles. The yell that came out of her mouth was a cross between a velociraptor and a whale. Crime scene photos exploded everywhere as Tashigi’s elbow and the heel of her palm scraped the damp pavement.

Tashigi lay for a few moment with her forehead resting on the moist pavement of the street. It had been a while since her last truly great trip. The heat on her elbow and palm indicated scrapes. She could feel the strap of her gym bag caught around her ankle. Her glasses were gone, so where her pictures, and her dignity.

“Ow.” She groaned with delay and sat up. She felt her hip to check if Shigure was still there. It was. “Well, at least it stopped raining.” She fumbled forward with blurred vision for her glasses.

“How does that make your epic klutz-out any better?” Tashigi’s patting hand encountered something warm and calloused instead of wet pavement. “Looking for these, Glasses?” The thin frames of her glasses were placed into her other hand.

“Imagine a slip and slide.” Tashigi said and puffed air out of her cheeks.

Zoro laughed as he helped her to her feet.

Tashigi put her glasses back on.

“I see you have more crime scene photos, Tashigi-san.” Robin called as she and the rest of the Strawhats—save Chopper, who was coming towards her at a brisk clip with a first aid kit—picked up her pictures.

“Is your victim a chef, Tashigi-chan?” Sanji asked as he picked one of the photos.

“No.” Tashigi said as Chopper fussed over her elbow and heel of her palm. “Those are the victims internal organs. They were shredded when he was gutted.” She shivered slightly as Zoro placed a hand on her shoulder and bent down to untangle her gym bag from around her ankle.

“Cool.” Luffy yelled gleefully and peered at the pictures in Jinbe’s hands.

“Nope. Nope. No.” Usopp stuttered and shoved all the pictures he collected into Brook’s hands. “I don’t like it. I don’t like it.”

“Oh God.” Sanji looked a little ill and handed the picture he picked up off the Robin. “A beautiful lady shouldn’t look at things like that.”

“I think it’s rather fascinating.” Robin mused as she flipped through the photos.

“Why’d they cut him up, Tashigi-sis?” Franky asked as he handed Robin more photos.

“Oh, well, you see, he was smuggling—”

“Diamonds!” Nami squealed as she looked at the pictures she just picked up. Her eyes were Beri. “He was smuggling diamonds.”

“That’s right, Nami-san.” Tashigi laughed as Chopper put a bandage over her elbow. “They got most of them, but that one had already become part of the passing process.”

“Shishishi, passing.” Luffy snickered as he bounced over to look at the pictures that fascinated Nami. “You can just say he was gonna poop, Tashi.”

“Tashigi,” Chopper said seriously as he put a bandage on the heel of her palm, “please let me check your cuts again tomorrow.”

“They’re just a couple of scrapes, Chopper-kun.” Tashigi reassured the short doctor. “I’ll be fine, I’ve had those before.” Chopper pouted and looked up at her with big brown eyes. Oh, he was criminally cute with his precious little hat.

“Just give in, Glasses.” Zoro whispered over her shoulder as they both stared down at the adorable young man. “You know you can’t resist that face.”

“Oh, shut up, Roronoa.” Tashigi grumped, battling the flush that Zoro’s breath against her ear caused. “Yes, Chopper-kun, I’ll let you check my scrapes tomorrow.”

“Oh, thank you, thank you.” He hugged her around the middle.

“Say, Tashigi.” Nami asked as she approached, still looking at the pictures of the diamonds. “Where’d you find this guy?”

“Down in Bellevue, you know that little wedge of disputed neighborhood between Red Haired Shanks’ holdings in G-5 and Blackbeard’s holdings in the G-4.” Tashigi said Nami looked thoughtful.

“Then he probably died on his route.” The orange-haired woman said after a few moments.

“Come again?” Tashigi’s eyebrows climbed into her hair.

“Just this once,” Nami said with a slight smile, “I’m going to give you information free of charge.”

“I am honored.”

“Don’t be sassy.” Nami laughed and handed Tashigi the pictures. Robin could keep the body photos for a little longer, Tashigi was about to snag a lead. “Diamond smuggling in Grandline City is notoriously difficult. Tajine Province produces most of the diamonds that are sold everywhere in the country. Their exportation is heavily regulated by the government so they are ridiculously expensive, thus the diamond smuggling trade. A broker will usually find a mine out in the New World, as while most of the known mines are in Tajine there are a ton that can be found in the New World Provinces, and they’ll get a crew to mine and transport them to the city.”

“But those diamonds are obviously uncut. Anders Gill had cut diamonds in his stomach. Why’s that?” Tashigi asked, she’d taken out her notepad and started writing down Nami’s words.

“The uncut diamonds are taken through the city by Runners and across, most likely Fish Man Island, to Sabaody.” Nami explained. “There are tons of gem cutters in Sabaody. From there, more Runners can take them out to the Paradise Provinces, the Blues Provinces, and back to the New World Provinces. If your victim had cut gems in his stomach, then he was a runner and he was taking the final product down to a distributor who would take them to a jeweler somewhere in the New World.”

“Cut gems are probably more valuable and easier to sell than uncut ones? Right?” Tashigi asked.

“To the average citizen, yeah. To a jeweler or gem cutter it doesn’t matter.” Nami said with a shrug of her shoulders. “What’s really important is that because of the various territory disputes between gangs in the city, a Runner would run the same route every trip and he would go along the territorial grey areas between gangs.”

“They were watching and waiting for him.” Tashigi mumbled under her breath. “Thank you, Nami-san.”

“Eh, no biggie, but remember I’m charging you next time.” The orange-haired woman said good naturedly.

“You are a wealth of knowledge and a knowledge of wealth.” Tashigi joked and nudged Nami’s shoulder.

“Cute. Cute. That was cute.” Nami chuckled and poked Tashigi’s shoulder with affection.

“I try.” Tashigi grinned in an awkward bashful way.

“Lovely pictures.” Robin commented cheerfully as she handed the body photos back to Tashigi. “A bit heavy handed with the knife though, but the hands were steady.”

“Medical examiner beat you too that conclusion, Robin-san.” Tashigi said apologetically.

“Smart medical examiner.” Robin hummed with a pleased look.

“This is not a conversation I want to be a part of.” Usopp whined. Luffy giggled as he hung off of Usopp’s shoulder.

“Tashigi,” Chopper said very seriously, Tashigi had to fight the urge to squeal at the wrinkles between his eyebrows, “is this case going to be dangerous?”

“All cases have the potential to be dangerous, Chopper-kun.” Tashigi said with a wince. “I can only hope that a case runs a smooth course.”

“Yeah, and we all know that Glasses is such a careful detective.” Zoro snickered and slung an arm around Tashigi’s shoulder.

“I’m a very careful detective, Roronoa.” Tashigi pouted and glared at the man standing next to her. Trying to ignore the warmth of his arm through her thin blue-and-white striped dress shirt.

“Don’t mock Tashigi-chan, Marimo.” Sanji’s foot came out of nowhere and Zoro removed his arm to bring a lazy sword up to block the dress shoe covered foot. “Tashigi-chan, we were just headed out to dinner, would you like to join us?” Sanji was suddenly next to her, one of her hands gripped in his own, like a fairytale prince.

“As nice as that sounds, Sanji-san, I have a prior engagement.” Tashigi said with an amused quirk of her lips as she pulled her hand from his grasp.

“Oh ho ho,” Brook approached with amusement in his voice, “that sounds suspiciously like a date, Miss Tashigi.” Zoro stiffened next to her. Strange.

“I wish, Brook-san.” Tashigi sighed as she readjusted her gym bag. “I’ve got to go to the hospital.” Zoro relaxed somewhat, but she could sense his tension at her shoulder.

“What?” Chopper squawked and reached for Tashigi.

“I’m not injured, Chopper-kun.” Tashigi chuckled and caught his hands. “It’s for the case Jinbe-san gave me.”

“Is it progressing well?” Jinbe asked as he stood next to Brook.

“It’s trying.” Tashigi rubbed her forehead and checked her watch. “Oh, dear I’m running late. You guys have a good evening.” Tashigi jogged away from them and to her apartment.

She’d found several drug overdoses in the last four months that matched the ones on Fish Man Island. Only three of them had survived the ordeal. Tashigi was certain there were more further back, but the easier ones to track and talk to were the most recent ones.

************************

Rocco Lisa was in the long term care wing of the Upper New World branch of Grandline City Hospital. It was the biggest hospital in the city, covering the entire G districts, which is all of the New World parts of the city. In an ideal world there would be a hospital of equal size in the lower parts of the New World, but the government didn’t want to risk the investment after what happened to the police stations and fire departments.

Tashigi always thought it was poor choice, even gangsters wouldn’t oppose a hospital.

She fidgeted with the pocket of her jeans and the hem of her t-shirt as she pulled open the hospital room door.

“Miss Rocco?” She questioned the young woman sitting in a chair by the window.

The young woman turned her head from the window, white-blonde hair swirling. The left side of her face was slightly droopy; doctors said she’d suffer a stroke during her overdose and she was currently working to regain movement in her entire left side.

“Yes? Are you Detective Shoi?” Rocco Lisa asked as Tashigi approached slowly.

“I am, but you can call me Tashigi, I am off-duty at the moment.”

“Lisa for me then too.” The young woman said weakly, trembling when she smiled.

“I wanted to ask you about the night of May 18th.” Tashigi said gently and Lisa nodded. “What can you remember?”

“Not a lot.” Lisa admitted. “We, my friends and I, were clubbing on the Divider Strip. I had a lot to drink and I may have done some E or something. I can’t remember, just that it was a party drug. Someone said they knew of a better place to party.”

“One of your friends or someone you didn’t know?” Tashigi prompted lightly. The more details about how Lisa and her friends accessed the drugs would help her pinpoint a location of dealers.

“Some guy my friend Trish knew.” Lis gulped. “I remember he was pretty regular around the club scene and I had met him before, Axel something or other. He always had MDMA on him, that’s why I can’t remember how we got to the next club, it’s all blurry colors.”

“Can you remember anything specific about the club Axel took you to?” Tashigi probed.

“Bright and loud.” Lisa laughed slightly. “Like every other club. But it was real smokey, like they were overdoing it on the fog machine.” Tashigi chuckled with the blonde woman.

“Do you remember who gave you the drugs?” Tashigi asked and Lisa shifted uncomfortably.

“Axel said, that if we wanted a really good trip, we should ask one of the girls standing on the platforms for ‘something fun’.” Lisa whispered. “It was like a little packet of five red pills. I remember what it looked like because that awful wolf has been chasing me in my nightmares since then.”

“What happened next?” Tashigi asked gently.

“I took one and the world got all warped.” Lisa shifted in the hospital chair uncomfortably, picking at the hospital issue pants with her right hand. “It’s like everything was in a bubble, muted and stuff and like when you put on 3D glasses without looking at a screen. The next thing I knew there were only two pills left in the packet and I was seeing things, just weird visions that I can’t even explain. After that, nothing until I woke up in the hospital.”

Tashigi nodded silently. Lisa couldn’t remember much, having already been impaired when she and her friends had been taken to that second location. She probably felt safe, having done it tons of times before, not expecting a club drug to hurt her.

“What part of the Divider Strip where you in?” Tashigi asks after a moment. “Cause that’s a big area, covers all five G precincts.”

“At Night Reign, a club right in between G-4 and G-5.” Lisa said and rubbed her forehead. “Axel said that where he wanted to take us wasn’t far.”

“Alright, alright.” Tashigi said gratefully and jotted down the information. “Thank you for speaking to me, I hope it wasn’t too painful.”

“I feel like I didn’t give you anything important.” Lisa said and Tashigi can hear a wet choking in her voice. “Kim would give you way better information, she only had cocktails before we went there, she should—” Lisa took a shuddering breath, trying to calm down.

Tashigi understood when the young woman was trying to say. Rocco Lisa was the only one of her trio of friends to survive their encounter with the mysterious drug. Hannibal Kim and Westerly Trish had died of their overdoses. Five pills in a package, enough to kill a person if take all at once. Kim and Trish had empty packets in their pockets, Lisa had one left. The doctors had tossed it.

“You gave me good information.” Tashigi said comfortingly and patted Lisa’s right knee. “It puts me one step closer to finding the people responsible for giving you those drugs.”

“You find Axel too.” Lisa said with vehemence.

“I will, I will.”

“He’s responsible too.” Lisa said and tears leaked out of her eyes. “so you find him for them, for Kim and Trish.”

“I’ll find them for all of you.” Tashigi whispered as she patted Lisa’s knee while she cried. She felt like she was making a promise to more than Rocco Lisa. It felt like 93 dead women stood on Tashigi’s shoulders, watching Lisa as she cried.

This group was eating the vulnerable women of this city alive and Tashigi was beginning to feel like one of them, spinning her wheels looking for Mata Juniper and bodies without organs.

********************

“Detective-ya.” Tashigi turned her head as she and Zoro strolled down the street towards their usual morning spar. Trafalgar Law hung out his door wearing sweatpants and a long sleeve in July, deep bags under his eyes. “I might have something for you.”

The vestiges of sleep that clung to Tashigi sloughed off immediately. She gripped Zoro’s elbow in trepidation. A lead or more puzzles?

“Really?” Despite her apprehension, the mounting excitement was hard to contain. If Law had managed to find bodies, she could compare them to pictures and trace the locations back to a main source, like she was currently doing with drug overdoses and distributions.

“More cut up dead bodies?” Zoro mused as he followed behind and eager Tashigi. Not like he had a choice with the bespectacled woman’s hand fisted in his shirt, dragging him into the Heart gang’s yellow house. “Damn, Four Eyes, at this point you’re collecting.”

“Oh, hush.” Tashigi pouted over her shoulder at the softly smirking one-eyed man.

The Polar Tang house was surprisingly clean. Thousand Sunny house was always messy, cluttered with objects of the Strawhats members interests and filled with mismatched furniture. The clean lines of the minimalist modern furniture reminded Tashigi of Smoker and Hina’s apartment; black, grey, and white with pops of preferred colors. Yellow, orange, and light green, seemed to be the Heart gang’s, while red, magenta, and pastel pink where her superiors.

Tashigi liked the Thousand Sunny house better, because it reminded her of her own eclectic apartment and her childhood home.

“I’m going to preface this entire conversation,” Law began as he lead Tashigi and Zoro through the living room and into a study decorated with posters on the human nervous system and musculature, there was a skeleton hanging in the corner, “by saying that what I’m about to tell you doesn’t come against my sources, no arresting them for glory, Detective-ya.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” Tashigi promised, waving her hands placatingly in front of her body, as she danced from foot to foot in front of Law’s black desk.

“Stop friggin’ squirming.” Zoro sighed and placed both hands on her shoulders to still her. “You look like you have to pee, or explode.”

“At the risk of sounding hypocritical,” Law said dryly, looking between the two sword wielders, “one should not be that excited about the prospect of dead bodies.”

“It’s this case.” Tashigi whined and glanced sideways up over her shoulder at a quizzical Zoro. “There are so many empty spaces and absolutely no information.”

“You’ll figure it out.” Zoro rubbed the back of her head and Tashigi felt bubbly and warm in her chest. Succubus Tashigi purred like a cat, so did Saint Tashigi—unrelated to Zoro, Saint Tashigi purred when Smoker and Tsuru patted her head.

“Please stop staring at each other like that, this is my home.” Law said with muted disgust, Tashigi ripped her eyes away from Zoro with an embarrassed flush.

“Ha, oh, um, you were saying?” Tashigi hummed, trying to act nonchalant and feeling the heat in her face, Zoro cleared his throat and removed his hand from her hair.

“Absolutely ridiculous.” Law muttered. “Anyway, back to what I was saying, I contacted some broker friends of mine, asking if there had been a sudden influx of in-demand organs about three and one year ago. They got very tense and asked me just how I knew that.”

Tashigi bit her lower lip. This group, they struck fear in the hearts of career criminals, why?

“I told them, I heard some impossible rumors.” Law continued. “But that is beside the point, what they told me was this: they’d all had interactions with an organ seller that used different proxies for every meeting. This seller always had the highest demanded organs. My brokers said that they stopped working with them directly about two years ago, they didn’t think anything of it because I was still in operation.” Law glanced at Tashigi, her face may have been scrunched in disappointment. “I would like to point out, Detective-ya, that I specialized in disposable organs: kidneys, colons, reproductive organs, the occasional stomach. Things you can live without.”

“And this seller supplied, what?” Zoro asked as Tashigi tried to fix her very judgmental face; it was not working. “Hearts? Lungs?”

“Liver. Pancreas. Cornea. Heart valves.” Law listed conversationally. “Things you can only get when a person dies and they agree to have their organs donated.”

“Does that mean you have bodies?” Tashigi asked curiously.

“No.” Law sighed and rubbed his temples. “I’ve got to tell you this Detective-ya, the task you gave me is frighteningly difficult.” Tashigi winced, she’d been feeling that way lately; Koby and Helmeppo were dredging up names of runaway girls that were already dead. “I only have a list of twelve companies that have accepted organs from this seller from my brokers, you’d have to go through their records to see if they have accepted any similar organs from disreputable sources, which I also have a list for.” He handed her two sheets of paper.

Great, Tashigi loved scrolling through records, eyes burning from the computer screen.

“Why haven’t the cops found any bodies?” Zoro asked in confusion. “You’d think a bunch of bodies without organs would draw attention.”

“This is where Detective-ya may get even grumpier.” Law smirked slightly.

“I’m not grumpy.” Tashigi tried to sound airy, like all this admitting to criminal activity wasn’t making her gnaw at her cheek.

“Your little justice radar is going crazy, isn’t it?” Zoro asked with a wry smile.

Tashigi puffed air out of her cheeks, scrunched her nose, and tugged her glasses out of her hair and onto her face. Zoro’s grin widened at her disgruntled expression. Cocky smug man, pushing her buttons and haunting her wet dreams.

“Keep in mind, Detective-ya, that I never did the things I’m going to tell you about, I only knew people who did.” Law said, holding a finger up to make his point. “Basically, if you have enough money, you can falsify identity, death records, and hospital records for donated organs, then send the body to a funeral home and have it buried or cremated.”

Tashigi’s mouth dropped open. It was that easy. That easy to take and erase a person. Body looks right, documents look right, money paid in full. No reason not to follow through with a burial or cremation.

How many girls were buried in graves that weren’t theirs? Or sat in urns on their killer’s shelf? Tashigi felt hollow. She thought it’d be easy. That there would be a tangible trace of her missing girls left in the world for her to follow.

But there was nothing.

“Tashigi?” Zoro’s voice was tinny and far away in her ears. “Tashigi?” He placed a hand on her shoulder and then gently turned her face with the other. “Tashigi?”

“Huh?” She mumbled and shook herself lightly, trying to refocus. “Yes?”

“Are you okay?” Zoro asked, his brows were tight with concern and Tashigi didn’t like how his scar puckered with the stress, he shouldn’t have stress.

“Oh, oh no, I’m fine.” Tashigi patted his arm distractedly and turned to Law, who also looked concerned—how strange. “You wouldn’t happen to have a list of regularly used funeral homes, would you?”

Law shook his head.

“Ah,” Tashigi tried to keep the tremor out of her voice, “Well, thank you for the lists, Trafalgar.” She took the pieces of paper from him. “I will look in them.” Tashigi felt like she was barely functioning, just turning on her heel robotically while keeping a firm grip on her bag and almost crumpling the papers.

“I’ll keep searching, Detective-ya.” Law called after her.

“Oh, yes, thank you.” Tashigi said over her shoulder, her voice sounded fragile in her own ears. “Have a good day.” Succubus Tashigi patted her cheek while rubbing small circles in a dumbstruck Saint Tashigi’s back. Swordswoman Tashigi held a mournful position on her head, looking up into the sky for answers to a fight she couldn’t get her bearings in.

Her hands were clammy as she shuffled the two flimsy pieces of paper back and forth. Back and forth. Deep in. Deep out. Back and forth. Deep in. Deep out.

“Fucking hells, Tashigi.” Zoro’s heavy footfalls followed her out of Polar Tang house. He pulled her to a stop by gripping her elbow and standing in front of her. “Stop walking.”

“Roronoa,” Tashigi attempted to pull her professional I’m-a-detective-that-gets-things-done voice, but sounded too near tears, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have left you like that.”

Zoro held her elbows for a moment, eyebrows scrunched as an invisible battle raged behind his eye. Then he tugged her gently forward into a hug.

Tashigi stiffened. His embrace was warm and enveloped her as he tucked her head under his chin. Tashigi felt the tears she’d been trying to push down bubble to the surface and she tried to sniff them back. Crying in Roronoa Zoro’s arm would be the ultimate humiliation.

“Just let it out, Tashigi.” Zoro rumbled, and Tashigi felt the vibrations under her ear. “We can train once you let it all out. C’mon, there’s no shame, that was some really shitty news.”

Tashigi brought her arms up the grip the back of Zoro’s shirt. She buried her face into his chest, took a deep shuddering breath and cried.

She sobbed for the missing women. The victims of Baines and in the Fish Man Island case. She cried for Mata Juniper and Rocco Lisa, who had survived their friends. The rest of the girls being forced to sell drugs and those that had died taking them. Tashigi cried for everyone found and unfound. She cried for herself, knowing she might not be able to find them all.


	15. July III

“I think I know how we can find who killed Anders Gill.” Tashigi croaked as she walked up to Smoker’s desk. Her face was still pretty blotchy from crying an hour previous, but Zoro had been right once she’d gotten it out, their sparring was as normal as ever. Tashigi still couldn’t shake how warm his arms had been.

“Oh?” Smoker asked, if he noticed the tell-tale sighs his subordinate had been crying he said nothing. “How’s that?”

“Anders was a runner for some diamond smuggling operation.” Tashigi explained, dragging a chair up to Smoker’s desk. “Last night I was given a crash course on diamond smuggling and what stood out to me was the fact that, to avoid conflicts with gangs, they run the same route in the grey areas of the city.”

“You’re thinking,” Smoker said slowly as he jumped quickly on her reasoning, “that they probably followed him along his route before they attacked him.”

“If I can find his route on City Surveillance System.” Tashigi rubbed her eyes under her glasses. “Then I can check to see if there are suspicious character hanging around.”

“A man committing a criminal offense wouldn’t exactly be caught on the CSS so blatantly, especially when there are a lot of blank spots he could through.” Smoker mused as he thought about the idea.

“Even with all blank spots, he’d have to cross one camera at some point.” Tashigi pointed out, hoping he wouldn’t think she was on the tail of a wild goose chase.

“Sounds like you’re going to being spending the day at Federal Forensic Science.” Smoker muttered.

“Aren’t I so lucky?” Tashigi groaned and rubbed her temples.

“Why are you lucky?” Koby asked as he approached the two.

“I get to trawl through the City Surveillance System to see if our victim was being followed.” Tashigi sighed.

“Maybe hold off on that.” Koby said and handed a couple papers and a picture to Smoker. “I found our victim’s girlfriend. She lives over in the G-4 precinct but Captain Fujitora says we can bring her in here.”

“Good.” Smoker grumbled as he looked over the personal records of Jayne Lindsey, girlfriend of the deceased Anders Gill. “Bring her in, let’s see what she knows.”

“About his death?” Koby asked with interest.

“About diamond smuggling.” Smoker said and threw a look in Tashigi’s direction.

“Interesting theory, Sir.” Tashigi muttered as she looked at the picture of the woman with long, curly, dark brown hair and hazel eyes. She looked like a pixie, all sharp features and playful glint. “You think she could be smuggling too?”

“If one part of a couple is a criminal, then they both are.”

“Sir.” Tashigi admonished with a pout. He was sounding awful Absolute Justice-like.

“Fine. Fine.” Smoker acquiesced. “So maybe she’s not a criminal, but she couldn’t have dated him without knowing anything.” Tashigi nodded in agreement.

“I’ll bring her in.” Koby chuckled slightly.

********************

“I can’t believe he’s gone.” Jayne Lindsey sobbed over the metal table in Interrogation One. Tashigi pushed the emergency packet of tissues towards her. According to Koby and Helmeppo, Lindsey had been sobbing since they’d picked her up from her apartment.

Smoker did not do well with public displays of vulnerability. The man emotionally battened himself down tighter than a naval submarine. The grimace on his face as Linsey hiccupped delicately into her tissues was uncomfortable and stormy.

“Miss Jayne,” Tashigi cleared her throat and brought Linsey’s watery eyes up, “I hate to ask this but, um, did you know what your boyfriend did for a living?”

The color drained out of Jayne Linsey’s face. She fidgeted with several Band-Aids wrapped around her slender fingers. Tashigi’s eyes narrowed at the sight.

“W-what?” She asked, eyes drying quickly. “What do mean?”

“We know why your boyfriend was down in the area and why he was killed.” Smoker said bluntly. “Question is, do you?”

Tashigi watched the young woman’s lips press into a thin line. An inward curl of contemplation, with slightly shrewd flicking eyes between the detective and Sergeant. Her face had, for a moment before the curl of her lips, displayed wide unbridled rage and panic.

“It wasn’t a mugging?” Linsey asked in a nervous breathy voice.

“Miss Jayne,” Smoker sighed through his nose and pinched the bridge, “please stop. Who was your boyfriend working for and would they have killed him?”

Linsey inhaled deep and shakily.

“We both work for him.” Linsey admitted and wiped her eyes free of tears. “I run the G-4 route and Gilly ran the G-5.”

“Is that your alibi?” Smoker asked candidly.

“Yes.” Linsey said calmly. “I was running my route when Gilly was killed.”

“Is there anyone that can verify that?” Tashigi asked as she noted Linsey’s alibi in her note pad.

“Butcher James is his name.” Linsey said with a shuddering sigh. “He works out of Sabaody 27, in a shop called Butcher Blue Gem Cutters.”

“Alright.” Smoker said slowly and a cool silence fell over the interrogation room. “That’s all the questions we have for now.”

“Please be available if we need to ask more.” Tashigi added as Lindsey stood and nodded stiffly.

“Is it just because I hate people crying or was she off?” Smoker murmured as he watched the door swing closed behind the practically fleeing woman.

“Her face after we told her we knew what Anders did for a living.” Tashigi said contemplatively, remembering the flash of cold eyes on Lindsey’s face. “Either she was furious we’d figured it out or terrified.”

“I’ll have Bomba and Bakezo keep an eye on her.” Smoker muttered.

“I’ll ask Koby to call Sabaody 27 to see if they have a file on Butcher James.” Tashigi said as she stood from the interrogation table.

“While you’re at it,” Smoker scrubbed a hand down his face, “Have Helmeppo ask Stevie to go back down to that alley, where she and her little crime tech assistants can comb every inch of it for the weapon used to cut him up. Have them expand to the alleys on the other sides of the buildings too.”

“The Band-Aids on her hands?” Tashigi asked from the doorway with raised brow.

“Could be nothing, could be everything.”

**********************

“Butcher James likes only one thing,” Tashigi huffed as she tried to keep her red umbrella over Smoker as they stepped out of his white Hunter muscle car, “Smuggling.”

She stepped in a particularly deep puddle, soaking her black sneakers and hem of her black dress pants in dirty rainwater. Why was this week so rainy? It made her ten times more accident prone.

“More than diamonds?”

“They’ve never gotten him on the diamonds. But they’ve brought him in for animals, drugs, weapons. If it can be smuggled, then he has smuggled it.”

“He sounds like a peach.” Smoker grumbled as he pulled open the glass door of Butcher Blue Gem Cutters.

A small showroom with a few glass cases filled with pristinely cut gems of all shapes, sizes, and colors. Considering the size of the building the shop was in, Tashigi figured that there was more to the place than met the eye.

A dark-skinned man stepped out of a back office door at the sound of the bell. He wore a finely tailored silk suit of navy blue and thin pink pinstripes. Silver jewelry dripped from his neck, wrists, and ears. Tashigi considered him one of the more handsome criminals she’d met, possibly on par with Zoro. Not that she’d ever say _that_ out loud.

His blinding smile dropped as he noted the badges hanging from Smoker and Tashigi’s necks.

“What can I do for the police?” He asked smoothly, with an edge to his voice.

“Are you Butcher James?” Tashigi asked and the man nodded.

“Do you know this man?” Smoker held up a picture of Anders Gill from the autopsy table.

“So that’s why he didn’t check in.” Butcher James blew frustrated air from his nose.

“He was murdered in an alley in the Bellevue neighborhood.” Tashigi told him. “The cut gems he was carrying were taken out of his stomach.”

Butcher James cursed and rubbed his forehead.

“Where were you at 7:45 yesterday morning?” Smoker asked and leaned, Tashigi was considering the stance threateningly casual, on the case counter.

“Here.” Butcher James replied with a slightly savage smirk. “I have video surveillance to prove it.” He pointed to a camera up in the corner of his shop ceiling.

“I’ll believe it when I see it.” Smoker muttered.

“Mr. Butcher,” Tashigi huffed, annoyed that another suspect had an alibi, “is there anyone who wanted Anders Gill dead?”

“Gill was a good kid.” Butcher James sighed and crossed his arms. “He was fast and punctual, even brought his girlfriend in last month when my usual G-4 runner broke his leg—rugby accident—all in all, my best employee.”

“So a perfect angel devoid of enemies.” Smoker grumbled.

“While Gill may not have had enemies,” Butcher James said tentatively, glancing between Tashigi and Smoker, “I certainly did.”

“You think one of your business rivals killed Anders Gill?” Tashigi asked and pulled out her notepad. Ready to take down names or make important notes. Sometimes useless information on some cases were relevant in others.

“It’s possible. There are very few safe routes through the New World neighborhoods.” Butcher James explained. “Lots of my competitors use the same routes. Gill was having some kind of issue with a runner from Big Boss Gems, some kid named Bridgetower Wyatt.”

“Got an address for him?” Smoker grumbled and thumbed his eyes in exhaustion.

“If it’ll get you off my back and out of my business, you can tear Big Boss Gems apart.” Butcher James made to go back into his back office to get the information.

“Would you also mind giving us both Anders Gill and Jayne Lindsey’s route?” Tashigi asked nervously, fidgeting with her pen. She hoped he would hand them over, not requiring a warrant.

“I’m planning on changing the route after this anyway, but why Jayne Lindsey’s?”

“I want to know how close their routes are.”

“To see if she could kill him?”

“Yes.” Tashigi admitted, not sheepishly, but with reservation.

“I don’t really know the girl.” Butcher James said with contemplation on his handsome face. “Gill had been dating her five months before he brough her on to run the G-4 route. Never really saw her without Gill. Average running times. Beyond that, I don’t know, but I’ll get you her route too.”

“We appreciate your cooperation.” Smoker growled, the pain of saying such a thing to a known criminal audible in his voice.

Butcher James smirked as he disappeared into his back room.

“What’s our plan of attack after this, Sir?” Tashigi asked, looking up at her brooding superior. His eyes and ears were trained on the door to Butcher James’ back room.

“You originally wanted to comb through CSS today.” Smoker grunted. “It’s a couple hours later, but still a good idea, once you get those routes. Call Koby and Helmeppo. The Little Prince will come with me and Bubblegum can take you to Federal Forensic Science.” Tashigi suppressed her smile as her stone faced superior used the names on her pseudo little brother’s office coffee cups. Which he had given them for their last birthdays.

“I can do that, Smoker-san.” Tashigi said, eager to do a good job. “We check in tomorrow morning with our results?”

“If I get anything pertinent before then, I’ll call your little gargoyle butt hunched in the basement of FFS.”

“Please, Smoker-san, gargoyles hunch on parapets, ghouls hunch in basements.”

“Fine. Be a good ghoul and find the killers.”

******************

“Not to whine…” Koby mumbled from behind the four sets of screens on the other side of Tashigi’s own four set of screens.

“You can whine, Kobs.” Tashigi groaned and rubbed her aching eyes. “It’s allowed.”

“My eyes hurt.” Koby slumped sideways to look at Tashigi around the screens.

“Mine too, buddy.” Tashigi reached under her screens to haphazardly pat his hands.

“We should invest in those blue light glasses.” Koby huffed, fiddling with his large round spectacles. “Considering how much we’re looking at screens these days.”

“Is the search through missings and runaways going badly?” Tashigi winced, pausing the old CSS footage from every camera on Anders Gill’s route.

“Everyone I find is either dead or one of the poor girls at the halfway house that didn’t want an abusive family member to know she was alive and gave us a fake name.”

“I’m sorry, Koby, you can take a break from it if you want.”

“No. Even if it’s disappointing, it’s one step closer to the truth. Helmeppo agrees with me. How’s your look into the drug overdoses?”

“I’m meeting with the second person today. Even if I only get a bit of information, as you say it’s one step closer to the truth.”

“And so we spend our youth chasing bad guys.” Koby sighed good-naturedly as he sat back up and returned to watching his portion of the cameras on his screens.

“Would you have it any other way?” Tashigi chuckled weakly. “I don’t think I would. It’s not who I am.”

“What is justice to you, Tashigi?” Koby asked quietly as they both watched their screens for a hint of Anders Gill or the person who killed him.

“What makes you ask that Koby?” Tashigi mumbled as she strained to see the corners of the screen, as if that would help.

“I’ve been thinking about it lately.” He said quietly, as if afraid of who might overhear in the basement of Federal Forensic Science. Only a few other people hunched over similar four screen set ups, detectives and agents furiously searching for evidence captured on screens. “Ever since Marineford, whenever we get a _difficult_ case, I wonder what true justice is.”

“Anders and his poor intestines getting to you?” Tashigi teased lightly, knowing it wasn’t Anders that concerned him. While the man’s death was tragic, it was unfortunately par for the course amongst their cases.

“You know it’s the girls.”

“I do.”

“So what is justice to you?”

“It’s when the victims feel avenged. And when there are no living victims, it is when the culprit is stripped of the power that allowed them to kill.” Tashigi answered. She’d been thinking about it recently, how she’d been able to feel satisfied after finally taking down the entirety of the group that had enlisted Baines to kidnap girls to sell and was harvesting them for organs and forcing them to sell lethal drugs. She wanted them as helpless and confused and powerless as they’d made those girls.

“That’s a good answer.” Koby murmured. “How does it apply to gangsters?”

“Yeah, that’s where it gets complicated, because there are easy answers like Blackbeard and Doflamingo. Then there are difficult answers like…” Tashigi trailed off. Like the Strawhats, like Ace.

“Like Luffy?” Koby supplied, she could hear his smug little grin.

“Yeah.” Tashigi admitted. Her eyes dazedly watching the third screen. When she realized there was a car she’d seen before. Tashigi hit rewind on the first screen. Battered Street Viper, an angular car with dull red paint.

She rewound her second screen. Again the Street Viper creeping slow behind someone out of sight of the camera.

She turned to the fourth screen and was gifted with the most glorious sight. Anders Gill, tousled dirty blond hair and black frames, crossing the street in one of the rare moments where he couldn’t avoid the cameras and heading into an alley. The Street Viper stopped on her screen and two men got out of the red car.

One was huge, tall, broad and thick, while the other was a hunched skinny thing that even through the grainy view of the CSS reminded Tashigi of a weasel.

Tashigi paused her screen. Then used the screen capture function to capture the image. One of Stevie’s techs would be able to enhance the picture of the two men, where they had briefly crossed her screen.

She looked at the time stamp. Two weeks before he was killed.

“Kobs, I got something.” Tashigi hissed and beckons Koby around the screens. “See if you can find these men and their red Street Viper on any of the other tapes, especially on the day Anders Gill died.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Tashigi opened her email and send the screen capture to Stevie, asking if she could get her techs it enhance it. She continued to trawl through the footage. Eyes searching for a shadow of either men, or Anders Gill.

Tashigi found them again an hour later. Two weeks later on the tape, the day of Anders Gill’s murder. It was a street a couple blocks from the crime scene and, unlike previous times when they followed the unknowable shadow of Anders Gill, they did not follow straight, but turned down another side street.

Tashigi picked up the phone and dialed the office for the City Surveillance System six floors up.

“Hi, this is Detective Shot Tashigi down in the basement.” She said to the tech that answered. “I’m reviewing footage from some cameras around 12th Street in the Bellevue neighborhood of the G-5. I was wondering if I could get the footage of the five streets parallel and perpendicular from Wednesday the 14th from about 7am to 8am?”

“Right away.” The tech replied in a chipper tone and hung up.

“Found something?” Koby asked.

“Possibly.” Tashigi murmured as she watched her inbox for the footage. “I’m going to send you half the footage, okay?”

“I’m on it!”

Tashigi sent him all the footage for the perpendicular streets when she got them. She checked the parallel street cameras. They were empty, save for a few streetwalkers clocking out after a long night.

“Tashigi.” Koby whispered excitedly and flapped his arms over the top of his screens, knocking his glasses askew on his red and white polka dot bandana. “I found it. I found it.”

Tashigi scrambled around the desk, slipping on nothing to get to Koby. She pressed her cheek against his as the pink-haired young man vibrated with excitement.

They both watched as the battered red Street Viper parked in the far corner of the screen. The two men got out of the car, hulking figure crossing in front while the shadow of the weasel man slid from the side into a building off screen. The hulking figure carried something long and cylindrical.

“This is Rivers Avenue.” Koby breathed excitedly. “That building is one of multiple abandoned buildings in the Bellevue neighborhood.”

“Don’t all those old building in that area have connected basements?” Tashigi said with equal excitement, squeezing Koby’s shoulder. “We got them. We should comb through those connected basements tomorrow.” Tashigi made to stand.

“Wait, wait,” Koby huffed and tugged her back door by her red hibiscus patterned dress shirt, “there’s more. Watch.”

Tashigi watched as the two men returned to the Street Viper after forty-five minutes. A third person followed behind them, dress entirely in dark colors, with a hood pulled up all the way. The third figure slipped into the back seat.

“Holy Shit.” She breathed as she watched the car drive off. “It’s a trio.”

“Question is,” Koby mused as he looked between the four screens, “who is it?”

************************

While Tashigi loved her red hibiscus dress shirt, she was beginning to think that it was a tad too bold for visiting Rex Kyle in his halfway house.

She took the carpet covered stairs slowly. The house manager had said Kyle’s room was on the second floor, first door. When she’d spoken to Kyle on the phone, setting the meeting up, he’d sounded jittery and tired.

Rex Kyle was a hollow cheeked, red haired man with bright freckles standing out against sickly pale skin. He sat in a swivel office chair, typing erratically on a large scuffed laptop.

“Rex Kyle?” Tashigi asked softly from the doorway. The wiry man wrenched himself around in his chair violently. Watery blue eyes blinking in confusion at her presence.

“Y-you’re that detective lady.” He mumbled, scratching his cheek. Kyle’s overdose and subsequent withdrawal period had left him with a significant stutter.

“You can call me Tashigi.” She said kindly and delicately perched herself on the edge of his twin bed. “I’ve come to ask you about April 5th.”

Rex Kyle closed his eyes and shuddered.

“I-I try not to think about that time in my life.” He rasped. “Part of my sobriety.”

“I know.” Tashigi said gently. “I will try to be as invasive as possible.”

He nodded slowly. Tashigi could see the clench in his sharp jaw.

“It was the h-highpoint of my drug use.” Kyle began, swiveling his chair to face her. “I’m not going to lie when I say, I don’t remember much of A-April or the past five years.”

“That’s okay.” Tashigi reassured him. “It’s whatever you can remember.”

“I-I’d been trying to find harder stuff for months.” Kyle admitted. “You get to a point where it’s all you think about. A buddy of mine, M-Misty, she’d heard and tried stuff from this girl before. Misty said it was just what I was looking for.”

“Can you describe the girl?” Tashigi asked carefully, noting the pained throb of a vein in Kyle’s sweaty forehead.

“Looked a bit like she was sampling the product.” Kyle said dryly. “B-Bags under her eyes, short dirty hair, and painfully thin. Called herself Stella, don’t think it was her actual name.”

“What’d she give you?” Tashigi asked, noting the name and description in her notebook.

“First few times it was just regular heroin.” Kyle sighed and rubbed his forehead. “But that last time, on April 5th, it was something different?”

“Pills?” Tashigi asked, thinking of Rocco Lisa and her friends. “Red tablets?”

“Red powder.” Kyle said and looked at her with stark fear. “Stella said it was heroin with a twist, best high of my life, wouldn’t have a shitty withdrawal.”

“What happened?” Tashigi whispered.

“Misty and I, we took it.” Kyle swallowed stiffly. “It wasn’t the best of my life, it was a nightmare. Everything was distorted and doubled. H-Have you ever heard someone shake a big piece of metal? That wobbling warping sound it makes. That’s all I could hear, in everything.”

“What was Misty doing?” Tashigi asked.

“Screaming.” Kyle choked and rubbed his eyes. “She was sensitive to sounds. I remember her clawing at my shoulders, I was laying on the ground, I couldn’t move to help her.”

“Then what happened?”

“The hallucinations.” Kyle cracked a little. “Misty stopped being Misty. She ripped and morphed into a snarling wolf, chasing me through a dark forest. Two tongues dripping in blood and thorny plants sprouting between pointy teeth.”

Tashigi shivered at the description. It sounded like Kyle’s mind had taken the logo of the mysterious drug sellers and ran with it to monstrous proportions.

“What happened next?” She asked, clenching and unclenching her hands against her dress pants. She knew what happened, the problem was that Kyle hadn’t been able to remember himself. At least, not at the time in April.

“I woke up in the hospital.” Kyle whispered quietly, turning to stare out his narrow window, fiddling with the hem of his shirt. “The doctors told me I had almost died and that Misty was…” He pressed his lips together.

That Misty was dead. Her own hallucinations had driven her out a fourth floor window. Kyle had been picked up by police and ambulances, walking down the street with her in his arms. Bloody, wailing, and wild eyed. Then he’d rolled over in a faint.

“Nothing else?” Tashigi prodded just a little and Kyle shook his head.

“I’ve tried so hard, but I can’t.” His voice was raspy with restrained sadness.

“Okay. Okay.” Tashigi backed off. “Do you remember where you met Stella to get the drugs?” If he remembered where Stella set up shop, Tashigi could triangulate a location of operation from Rocco Lisa’s experience.

“She always hung out on Gardner Ave, ya know down in the Dockside neighborhood.” Kyle coughed and cleared his throat. “She said she’d been working over in the East Canal neighborhood before.”

“Thank you, Kyle, that’s actually very helpful.” Tashigi said with a sweet smile. Trying to make him feel better about the whole terrible situation. These two new spots, with the club Night Reign, would make an area that Tashigi could get Sentomaru to focus on. She still had one more person to meet with.

“You know what the worst part about this is?” Kyle sighed, shoulders dropping as tension bleed out from them. “I’m clean. Sober for the first time in years, I should be happy. But I’m so sad. Misty was the only friend I had, everything I wanted to do in life, I wanted to with her. Including getting clean. I-I loved her and I can’t even remember how she died.”

Tashigi couldn’t imagine. She could guess, based off how she reacted to her parents’ deaths. But to be in the room with someone while they died, especially if they were the closest person in her life, was unthinkable.

“This isn’t your fault.” Tashigi began, scrambling to think of something that would reassure Kyle in this impossible situation. “I didn’t know Misty, but she wouldn’t want you beating yourself up over her death. She’d want you to be strong and sober in her memory.”

“She was always the one to say we should clean up.” Kyle released a raspy chuckle. “I used to say: okay, but one last time, because what haven’t we tried. I just didn’t know who I was without the drugs, I thought she wouldn’t be friends with me any other way.”

“I’m sure that’s not true.”

“Now I’ll never know.”

Tashigi folded her lips together. Pained by the hopeless look on his face.

“How have your meetings been going?” She asked desperately, trying to think of a way to walk out of Kyle’s room without feeling like she’d left a man on the edge. “Surely someone there must understand?”

“They’ve all had friends die from overdoses, but not like this. Whoever makes Wolfsblood is out to kill people.” Kyle rubbed his forehead.

“What did you say?” Tashigi whispered as she tried to comprehend his words. “Wolfsblood?”

“That’s what Stella called it.” Kyle said simply. “She said it was because of the color. Didn’t you know?”

“No. No.” Tashigi mumbled, processing the new information. “I didn’t even know there were more than pills until I met you. You and two other people are the only ones I’ve been able find that survived…ah, Wolfsblood.”

“There are others?” Kyle looked distraught, but strangely optimistic. “Other people they’ve done this to?”

“Yes.” Tashigi said tiredly, thinking of her scattered puzzle pieces of a case. One step forward, two steps backwards, and then four steps to the side. Gods, she was going nuts.

“Could I talk to them?”

Tashigi looked up in surprise. She’d never considered that.

“You would want that?” She asked. “Wouldn’t that remind you of Misty?”

“I want someone to talk to about this?” Kyle said resolutely. “Someone who understands just want those drugs do.”

“Well, I’ve already spoken to Rocco Lisa and she could probably use someone to talk too.” Tashigi pondered and then wrote down Lisa’s email and the hospital phone number on a page of her notebook. “If she doesn’t want to talk to you…um, please don’t force it.”

“I won’t.” Kyle agreed eagerly. “I promise. Thank you.” He accepted the scrap of paper Tashigi handed him. She nodded carefully and stood.

Tashigi descended the carpeted stairs slowly. Pondering the intense loneliness that pervaded the lives of Rocco Lisa and Rex Kyle. Left alive without their dearest friends. Tashigi wondered if she could survive such a thing. She’d survived her parents, but she’d been young. People had come looking after her. She’d been placed in a dormitory, with nuns coming by to cluck over her. She was an adult now, her new family small and loved hurdling headfirst into danger. If she lost them, well, that’d be it.

Tashigi shivered at the thought of being without any of her beloved colleges. She’d make sure that would never happen. She’d protect them. She’d protect them all.

******************

“I love it when they’re repeat offenders.” Stevie singsonged as she breezed into the bullpen the next afternoon. Tashigi glanced up distractedly, pouring over the list of rival diamond runs that might benefit from the death of Anders Gill. “I got Milo to enhance all those delightful pictures you sent me and run them through facial recognition software. Check out these records.”

The arrest records for Franco Dio and Channery Evan were placed in front of Tashigi. Evan was the smaller, weaselly looking man and his rap sheet was filled with breaking and entering, fraud, and robbery. Dio was the hulking beast that had unnerved her in the video and his sheet made her shudder; assault and battery, robbery, and attempted rape. They’d been incarcerated until three months prior, for a string of jewelry store robberies in the West Blue four years back.

Tashigi mildly wondered if she should request the case files.

“What about the third figure? Anything?” Tashigi asked beseechingly and Stevie shook her long locs in dissent.

“Too hidden. They knew those cameras were there.” Stevie pinched her bottom lip between her thumb and forefinger in deep thought. “Gods, I hate it when they’re smart.”

“You and me both.” Tashigi scoured the arrest files of the two men. Dio had no family. But Channery Even had a great aunt that lived in the city. “Thanks for these, Stevie.”

“Anytime.”

Tashigi rubbed the back of her neck. Her shoulders were stiff from her spar with Zoro that morning. He’d been unrelenting, raining blows on her first during hand-to-hand and then sword-to-sword. He was determined to push her limits, like when she upped her weight during squats, and Tashigi found it exhausting. She appreciated it, but she was sore.

Glancing out the nearby window, Tashigi grimaced at the grey rainy sky. Monet’s bullet wound ached on cold and rainy days, it made her reaction time in that arm slower. Zoro had nagged her about that. Gods, she hated it when he nagged her, like he was the most sensible man in the world and not some reckless slut for danger. Tashigi hated his nagging because it made heat pool in her abdomen, the authority drove her mad with lust, like a crazed teenager.

Gods she should have never slept with him. He did things to her without touching her.

Tashigi shook herself from her musings and stood. Smoker would want to know about Dio and Evan, as well as Evan’s great aunt in the city.

She shuffled down toward the interrogation rooms. Smoker had the owner of Big Boss Gems in room two and was currently moving Bridgewater Wyatt to tears in room three. This was one of the rare occasions where Smoker did his best work alone.

“Sir.” She said as she eased open the door to room three. He looked up. White hair wild from running his fingers through it while he was interrogating the owner of Big Boss Gems half an hour before. She’d heard his raised voice from her desk; not pretty, the owner was a tough nut to crack.

“Yes, detective?” Thick grey eyebrow quirked above stormy eyes. The willowy looking young man across from him looked relieved at the interruption.

Tashigi beckoned him out into the hall.

“Stevie got matches on the facial recognition.” Tashigi handed him the files. “The big scary one doesn’t have any family, the little scrawny one has a great aunt that lives in the city.Wanna take a little break and ask her some questions? Like if she’s seen her great nephew with an suspicious characters?”

“Truly the World’s Best Subordinate.” Smoker groaned. Tashigi beamed with pride as her grumpy superior stretched, probably stiff from sitting too long yelling at suspects. He so rarely paid her compliments out loud. “It’ll probably be good to let those two sweat for an hour.”

The pair entered the bullpen. Koby was hunched with Helmeppo and Hina over Hina’s desk—she had an assault case that turned cyber and the two youngest members of the G-5 knew more about computers than was sensible. Jango and Fullbody argued by their desks, their double homicide was either that or a murder-suicide and it was testing their patience.

Tashigi crossed to her desk as the phone on Smoker’s desk rang.

“Smoker.” The man said as Tashigi gathered her things; umbrella, Shigure, gun, police issue rain jacket. “No shit, really?”

Tashigi turned questioningly to Smoker. He looked like Christmas came early and every gangster in the city had turned themselves in with fully written confessions for the occasion.

“Smoker-san?” Tashigi asked, deeply concerned. She was of the opinion that no one as surly and as work oriented as Smoker could be that happy about anything outside of Red-Haired Shanks and Blackbeard renouncing their titles as Emperors of the Streets. Smug and unrestrained glee looked out of place on his usually stern face.

“Bomba and Bakezo have arrested Jayne Lindsey in a pawn shop, trying to get rid of some diamonds.” Smoker smirked. Sometimes a case resolved itself. “I should take Stevie and Koby to test the diamonds for blood and to compare her height to the figure on the video.”

“That leaves me to take Helmeppo to see Great Aunt Channery?” Tashigi sighed with an eye roll. “He’ll be so happy about that.”

“As much as I hate buttering up the Little Prince,” Smoker growled, a fond under tone in his voice, “he’s done some good work lately. It won’t hurt to tell him so if it gets him to go along uncomplaining.”

Tashigi giggled as she watched Smoker casually approached Hina’s desk and it’s three occupants.

“Koby.” The pink-haired young man snapped to attention, much to the amusement of the other two. Hina looked fondly down at the young man, while Helmeppo looked a little jealous. Smoker smirked again. “You’re coming with Stevie and I to deal with a suspect.”

“Yessir!”

“Helmeppo.” The blond stiffened and Hina’s fond eyes turned towards him. “You can accompany Tashigi to question a suspect’s relative.” Helmeppo looked crestfallen and mutinous.

“How come Koby gets all the fun jobs?” He pouted and glared across Hina’s chest to his blushing and smug pink-haired best friend.

“Because I’m the favorite.” Koby hummed and Helmeppo turned purple.

“Incorrect. Tashigi’s the favorite.” Smoker monotoned and Tashigi flushed. He must be in a very good mood, heaping on all the praise.

“What?” Both young men cried and looked scandalized.

“However, you both do great work.” Smoker laid it on a thick as he could, Tashigi heard the strain in his voice. Hina smirked at her boyfriend’s obvious discomfort with praise. “Helmeppo, I need you to go with Tashigi because of how well you did with the Greenwood case last week. It was some real good work.”

Helmeppo puffed with pride. Tashigi was warmed by the genuine pride at his job in his eyes, instead of cold arrogance.

“Thanks, Dad.”

The entire bullpen froze in shock. Helmeppo hadn’t even realized his verbal slip up. Jango and Fullbody looked positively gleeful and Hina had an affectionate hand pressed to her chest as she looked at the shock on Smoker’s face. Koby was smothering giggles.

“Why is everyone staring at me?” Helmeppo looked around, realizing the sudden silence.

“You just called Smoker-san ‘dad’.” Tashigi said, with as straight a face she could muster. “You said: Thanks, dad.” Helmeppo went very pale and his eyes widened greatly.

“Do you see me as a father figure, Helmeppo?” Smoker asked in his gruff voice, amusement apparent to all others except the embarrassed Helmeppo.

“No. If anything I see you as a bother figure, ‘cause you’re always bothering me.” Helmeppo snapped, mortification coloring red all over his face.

“Oi! Show your father some respect!” Jango cackled from where he and Fullbody wheezed against their desks, snickers and smirks abound.

“I didn’t call him dad.” Helmeppo shouted, sweating in desperation.

“No. No. Helmeppo, it’s okay. I take it as a compliment…son.” Smoker was as impassive as ever, with only a slight quirk of his lips to indicate his good humor.

“Oh my gods.” Helmeppo moaned and buried his face in his hands. “You guys are the worst.”

“Hina thinks it’s cute.” Hina rubbed Helmeppo’s back as the blond man tries to pull himself together.

“Super cute.” Koby snickered, having gravitated over to Tashigi.

“Should we maybe get you a therapist?” Tashigi asked, no real seriousness behind her suggestion, knowing that Helmeppo good benefit from a positive father figure.

“You! You.” Helmeppo shouted suddenly, pointing a furious finger at her. “I don’t know why everyone is ragging on me, you call them your parents all the time.”

“Yeah, but Tashigi’s Daddy Issues are old news.” Fullbody cackled. “She imprinted on Smoker like a duckling ages ago, you’re fresh meat.”

“They are not Daddy Issues.” Tashigi whined. She had a perfectly good father and mother, she just hadn’t known them as long as she should’ve. Smoker and Hina were just people who’d fallen into the voids they’d left behind, unintentionally.

“I’m not offended.” Smoker said, calm and collected. “If you want, we could talk about it. Say over a game of catch?”

Helmeppo’s lips pursed and he regarded Smoker suspiciously.

“I would like that.” He admitted quietly and Tashigi didn’t have the heart to tease him about calling Smoker dad anymore, not when he was such a soft boy about it.

“I’ll pencil you in for the game after Tashigi, but before the game with Koby.” Smoker said gruffly. Tashigi giggled, Smoker might’ve extended himself a tad too far with the joke.

“Wait, really?” Koby asked excitedly. “You’d play catch with us?” He was suddenly crowding Smoker, as was very giddy Tashigi. It’s so rare she gets to tease her superior.

“How come Tashigi gets to go first?” Helmeppo whined, embarrassment forgotten as he rounds the desk to crowd an increasingly irritated Smoker.

“Because I’m the favorite, right Smoker-san?” Tashigi huffed good-naturedly and turned back to her superior, noticing the twitch of a vein in his forehead. He probably regretted praising her earlier, oh well.

“I hate all of you.” Smoker grumbled and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Hina thinks Smoker-kun lies.” Hina snickered from behind Helmeppo, Koby, and Tashigi.

“Don’t you start woman.” Smoker glowered at her. Hina is unphased by the dark look in his eyes. “You two,” he pointed at Tashigi and Helmeppo, “go talk to the old lady. You,” pointed at Koby, “are coming with me. Hop to it.”

Tashigi snagged a whining Helmeppo’s arm, still chuckling at Smoker’s furious discomfort. Koby trailed behind them, gathering his stuff. The three of them are tangled together, trying to walk three in a row between the desks of the bullpen, but they stumbled over each other. Helmeppo snapped and whined when Tashigi tripped into him, while Koby had his hand fisted in the back of her loud orange blossom and lily print dress shirt. He meant to keep her upright, but sometimes he hampered her clumsy progress.

They were a disaster, the three of them, no wonder they need pseudo-parents.

“Congratulations, Smoker,” Tashigi heard Fullbody chuckled behind her, “your children are all idiots.”

“Gods help me that I like them for it.” Smoker sighed roughly. Tashigi smiled at the affection in his voice. Such strange men she found herself surrounded with, rough men who hid their gentle affection.

*****************

Channery Evan’s great aunt, Lilith, lived in a slightly rundown apartment building at the edge of the G-5, right next to the G-4. It had a small parking lot surrounded by a low wall and filled with only a couple cars. Helmeppo parked the squad car in the middle of the lot, no lights or sirens necessary for such an easy task.

Tashigi held her red umbrella over her and Helmeppo as they splash through the drizzle and dirty puddles to reach the black iron steps leading to the upper floors.

Channery Lilith lived on the third floor of the five story building. The front was open to the parking lot, but there was a single hallway on each floor that lead to four apartments. They were at the entrance of the third floor hallway when Helmeppo’s radio crackled to life on his hip.

“10-57 at the corner of Kern and Maple.” The voice fuzzed over the static. “All available units, please respond.” Tashigi paused her shaking of her umbrella. 10-57 meant firearm discharged. That was bad, very bad.

“That’s the jewelry store we passed two blocks up.” Tashigi mumbled as she looked down the hallway to apartment 304. Channery Lilith might know where her great nephew was, they needed to talk to her.

“Did we see anyone on our way here?” Helmeppo asked with concern, patrols were spotty over the large area of the G-5. Tashigi ran scenarios in her mind.

“Blackbeard threatened a dust up with Redhair, all patrols were routed downward towards their territories.” Tashigi frowned, when the gangsters got fired up the regular people suffered because the police ignored the ‘lesser’ threats.

“What do we do?” Helmeppo fiddled with his pair of Kukri strapped to his tactical belt.

“You answer the call.” Tashigi decided. She assessed no threats in the area and Channery Lilith was no threat. Jayne Lindsey was in custody if the old woman didn’t know where her great nephew was. “I’ll go talk to the great aunt.”

“Are you sure?” Helmeppo questioned, blond brows knitted in concern. “Doesn’t that break protocol?”

“Helmeppo,” Tashigi scoffed slightly, surprised that he was so concerned about protocol, “this is hardly the worst breach of protocol we’ve done. I’m a strong girl. I’ll be fine.”

“Alright.” Helmeppo acquiesced reluctantly. He pulled his radio from his belt and radioed in his intent as he hustled down the rain slicked stairs to the squad car.

Tashigi walked briskly down the hall towards apartment 304, umbrella closed and dangling in her right hand. She would be fine. Helmeppo would be fine. Channery Lilith would be old and wrinkled and offer her tea. Maybe she’d know where her great nephew was hiding, possibly not. Helmeppo would handle the 10-57; he had a bullet proof vest, he wouldn’t be shot.

“Ms. Channery Lilith?” Tashigi called through the door as she knocked. The brown paint is chipped and the brass numbers tarnished. “I’m Detective Shoi Tashigi. I’ve come to talk to you about your great nephew, Evan.”

She heard shuffling on the other side of the door.

“Ms. Channery?” Tashigi called again. The woman probably didn’t trust the police. “I’m not here to arrest you. I just want to ask you about Evan.”

More shuffling, then silence.

Then the door to 304 creaked open slightly.

“Come in.” A low voice rasped.

Tashigi pushed open the peeling door and stepped into the apartment.

It was dark. Shades down, grey light just barely filtering around the edges. There were no lights on and she couldn’t see into the dark shadows around the apartment. A strange unease pulled her shoulders tight and she stepped further into the apartment.

She heard the object whistling toward her head before she sensed it.

Tashigi ducked.

A baseball bat shattered the tall lamp she’d been standing next to.

A hulking shadow moved in her periphery as slighter shadow darted toward her. Tashigi kicked out at the slighter shadow on instinct as the door to the apartment slammed shut behind the bigger shadow. The smaller shadow released a pained grunt and stumbled back as Tashigi’s foot connected with something.

The hulking shadow swung the bat again.

Tashigi, still crouched, raised Shigure to meet the bat.

Except Shigure was still safely sheathed and on her belt.

“Shit.” Tashigi hissed as her red umbrella bent in half. She needed to get her bearings. Her eyesight had adjusted slightly and she saw a relatively clear and low coffee table in front of her.

Tashigi hurled her bent umbrella at the smaller shadow that had recovered and charged her again. She rolled away from the pair of shadows, across the coffee table. She stood again and drew Shigure.

Dio and Evan came into focus as her eye adjusted to the darkness finally. The grey light from the window glinted off the metal of the bat in Dio’s meaty fist. Evan had a faint sneer.

“How’d you find us?” Evan snarled. Tashigi gripped Shigure with two hands.

“You have records.” She said through gritted teeth. “The security cameras caught you two around the area of Anders Gill’s murder. Facial recognition did the rest.”

“Stupid.” Dio growled. “We need to leave.”

“She’s gotta go first.” Evan hissed and gestured to Tashigi.

“Make me.” Tashigi said with her lips drawn back from her teeth. They didn’t have guns, just the bat—the bat that killed Anders Gill—so Tashigi couldn’t use killing force with Shigure and definitely not her gun. She regretted sending Helmeppo away. “Where’s your great aunt?”

“Alive.” Evan said. “But we’ll deal with her after you.”

“Enough.” Dio snarled and lunged.

Sparks skittered off Shigure as it scraped along the bat. He’s stronger than her, but she trained with Zoro, who put in way more force to his blows than Dio. Locked against Dio and his bat, Tashigi forgot about Evan until he appeared by her side.

He managed one punch to her side before Tashigi caught his fist with her shin.

She kicked Evan away and shoved Dio with all her strength. Tashigi ducked under his arm and wacked Dio’s side with the blunt edge of her blade, then stepped onto the coffee table to bring Shigure’s hilt down on his neck.

On an average man, such a blunt blow might make him keel over. But Dio only stumbled away with a roar, hand still wrapped around the bat.

Evan charged her.

Tashigi held Shigure one handed as she used the other arm to fend off Evan’s sloppy blows. She managed to get a hand around his wrist and twisted his arm behind his back.

Dio returned with a vengeance, snarling and swinging. Tashigi winced as she and Evan staggered backward to avoid that deadly bat. Evan took several hits and Tashigi was bogged with guilt. She did not intend to use him as a human shield.

Evan slipped out of her grasp when Dio’s wild swings force them up and over a squashy armchair; it toppled backwards under their weight. Tashigi went sprawling across the carpet as Evan skittered away.

She just barely rolled away before Dio’s bat slammed into the carpet where her head had been. He was leering over her. Tashigi brought up her booted foot and slammed it into his large, bulbous nose.

He howled, enraged, and fell back.

Tashigi shoved herself to her feet, pelting after the retreating man. She needed to get that bat out of his hands.

Dio was crouched, one hand clamped over his nose. He swung, it’s aimed at her knees. Tashigi jumped over it and slapped his wrist with the flat of her blade. Dio hollered and the bat tumbled away.

Tashigi swopped in and snatched it up. Following instinct, she cracked it against the back of his knee. She retreated to the other side of the couch, watching Dio as he crumpled by the coffee table.

A strangled shriek echoed from her left side. Evan was back and he had a knife snatched from the kitchen, where the toppled armchair had dumped him.

Tashigi hurled the bat at him and, unlike with the umbrella, he was smart enough to dodge. She caught the knife with Shigure, but it was hard to hold the hiltless blade. Shigure slipped past the handle of the knife, the sharp edge scraping along Evan’s arm.

Tashigi, horrified, replaced Shigure with her arm. The knife blade only sliced her shirt and rain jacket, nicking her. Yet she could still feel a trickle of warmth run down from her left shoulder. Snarling Evan grabbed her shirt, ripping several buttons. Tashigi fisted her left hand in his shirt and dropped Shigure to her right hand, trying to keep the blade from stabbing him.

Force. Push. Pull. Tashigi and Evan grappled with each other by the half wall that divided the living room and bedroom.

She didn’t mean to. She just tripped over Evan’s feet, sending them both careening into the half wall. Tashigi felt Shigure stop, slide, and stop again. Evan released a choking gasp. There was warmth on her right hand.

She looked down. Shigure stuck out of Evan’s stomach, it pinned him to the wall. There was blood.

“Shit.” Tashigi needed to call an ambulance.

Dio suddenly lumbered to his feet and lurched toward her.

Tashigi dared not remove Shigure and cause Evan to bleed out. So she lunged at Dio, ramming her shoulder into his stomach.

The large man stumbled backwards.

Tashigi stepped up onto the coffee table and then jumped at Dio. She swung around his body, arm hooked around his neck. She locked her fist in the crook of her other arm, putting her best headlock around the man’s thick neck. Her feet are braced against his lower back.

She tightened her arms, squeezing, listening for the guttural ragged breathing.

Dio staggered backwards. He slammed Tashigi into the wall of the apartment. Pain racked her spine and she sank her teeth deep into her lip. She needed to ignore the pain and squeeze the breath from this freaking giant.

She was slammed into the wall again. And again. Her grip did not loosen. Vice grip around Dio’s neck as she tried to focus on not killing him.

Her back was going to hate her. She could feel the bruises already.

Dio staggered forward. He teetered. Tashigi tightened her lock on his neck.

The giant toppled onto his face. Tashigi groaned as the wind was knocked out of her, but she removed her arms from his neck.

Trying to suck air into her lungs, Tashigi managed to press two fingers to the pulse point on Dio’s neck. Relieved to feel the slow thump of a beating heart. Evan moan and whined piteously where he was pinned to the wall.

Tashigi shuddered as she dug her phone from the pocket on her tactical belt.

“Hina-san? I need help.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I maintain that Brooklyn Nine-Nine is the perfect AU for the Marines.


	16. July IV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my goodness, it has been a bit. I could blame my Masters, but personal procrastination played a part. These last July chapters will be the last of what I might consider puff chapters, we're getting deep into the plot and action after this, hopefully.

Tashigi was soaked. She didn’t care.

Smoker had been furious.

_“What were you thinking, detective?”_

She clenched her eyes shut, feeling the rocking of the bus against her head and remembering the flinty cold anger that had shown through Smoker’s eyes when he got out of his car in the apartment building parking lot.

_“Do you have a death wish, woman? Do you know how irresponsible that was?”_

Channery Lilith—who’d been duct taped in her own closet—and Evan were in ambulances. Dio shoved in the back of Helmeppo’s squad car with the shooter from the 10-57. Helmeppo had been pale and shaking; he’d been crushing her hand. He’d flinched when he’d seen Smoker.

_“You are not a one woman army, Tashigi, somedays you are barely half a soldier. One day, your reckless actions will get you killed.”_

Tashigi took full responsibility. She was the senior officer. The decision to send Helmeppo away had been hers.

That didn’t make the dressing down hurt any less.

“Go home.” He’d snarled in the end. “You’re done.”

Her umbrella was toast, bent in half, and the rain had picked up. Tsuru had handed off her duffle on the steps of the precinct with a gentle touch to her cheek and a kiss on her forehead. It felt sad and slightly admonishing.

Tashigi knew she’d deserved it. Smoker’s words especially.

The bus lurched, cracking Tashigi’s head against the window and forcing her eyes open.

It was her stop.

Grumbling, she gripped the seat in front of her and hauled herself out of her seat.

She stumbled off the bus, clumsiness enhanced by her wallowing.

She’d gotten arrogant, broken protocol. She lost her head. Why?

Saint Tashigi sat stiff backed on her shoulder, wounded from the mistake and the tongue lashing. Swordswoman Tashigi and Succubus Tashigi huddled on Tashigi’s head, glancing down at the frigid Saint and cradling their own wounded self-confidence.

Tashigi had been foolish, distracted, and they’d gotten the jump on her.

Her aching back was deserved.

Saint Tashigi sighed and muttered: “I want comfort.” Her other two entities crawled down to hold the shaking Saint. Tashigi’s insides curled and she lifted her face to the drizzling rain. Cold. So very cold.

Tashigi wanted comfort, but what kind she couldn’t conceptualize, plus she felt like she didn’t deserve any kind of reassurance. She’d fucked up, there was no denying it.

Up the rickety wooden steps. She slumped slightly against her door before she unlocked it. Dragging her feet across her threshold, she groaned at the sight of the man stretched across her couch.

“Kid and Killer over again?” She rasped and Zoro opened his good eye.

“Shrieking like Banshees and picking fights with Bonney and Tra-guy.” He rumbled and then his eye narrowed. “Forget your umbrella, Glasses?”

“Broke it.” She mumbled and held up her bent umbrella before dropping it to the floor, where the water coming off it began to puddle.

Tashigi shuffled toward her bedroom.

“And your shirt?”

Tashigi clutched at the gaping neck of her dress shirt, the first three buttons had been ripped off by Evan. Zoro probably had a great view of her white t-shirt bra; so sexy.

“Broke that too.” She called over her shoulder.

“Okay.” He drawled, totally unconvinced.

Tashigi dumped her duffle on the ground; Shigure placed gently on her bed. Soaking clothes shoved into the hamper. Hair clip placed on the dresser, wet hair tangled over her shoulders. She’d taken off her wet dress pants and shoes when Zoro’s presence in her apartment finally registered in a different way.

He offered a kind of comfort. A rough physical comfort that permeated her dreams since the first time. She looked to her shoulder entities.

Succubus Tashigi’s eyes were blown wide with desire. Swordswoman Tashigi nodded brusquely. Saint Tashigi chewed her lip, cheeks flushed, and eager.

Tashigi dropped her wet dress pants and left her bedroom. She felt possessed. Chilled and numb, dragged toward him by a strange magnetism that felt eerily similar to the aching in her chest that made her spill her troubles to him.

Zoro’s eye was closed when she approached the couch.

“Can we have sex again?” Gods, Tashigi cursed her own blunt mouth and inability to speak human words. Her brain to mouth filter needed a tune up.

Zoro’s eye snapped open. Tashigi suddenly became very aware that she was only wearing a damp, ripped, dress shirt and Zoro was eye level with her pale, clammy legs.

“Now?” He rasped, eye glued to her legs and then roving slowly upwards until he met her gaze. Flushed, Tashigi tugged the hem of her shirt. Gods, he could see her granny panties.

“Yes.” She breathed. Zoro sat up very suddenly, dragging his feet off the couch, his dark jean covered knees brushed her legs. Tashigi’s breath caught in her throat at the dark and eager look in his eye.

“Fuck. Okay.” He made to stand, but Tashigi, emboldened, shoved him back onto the couch and straddled his lap. She relished the groan that slipped from Zoro’s lips.

He was warm. Tashigi felt bad, getting his black shirt all damp as she pressed against his chest, but he didn’t seem to care. Zoro buried his fingers in her hair and dragged her mouth roughly against his own in a bruising kiss.

Tashigi moaned as he tugged her bottom with his teeth. Zoro’s tongue took the opportunity to delve into her mouth. Tashigi gasped and rolled her hips against his, grinding herself against the rough fabric of his jeans.

“Shit.” Zoro groaned and he ripped the rest of her shirt buttons. He kissed along the edge of her jaw and yanked her soaking wet shirt off her shoulders. Tashigi panted, arching into Zoro’s chest as he sucked the skin on her neck.

“Ah.” Tashigi gasped as goosebumps erupted along her cold and exposed skin. Zoro snickered into her skin, rubbing his stubble against her as he kissed and sucked along her throat and collarbones.

Tashigi untangled her arms from her mangled dress shirt, Zoro had only tugged it down to her elbows, and fisted one hand into the black fabric stretched across his broad shoulders. She dragged her other hand up the back of his neck and buried it in his hair. Tashigi pulled Zoro’s mouth away from that really lovely spot under her ear that made her shudder to kiss him ferociously.

She bit his bottom lip and ground herself against him.

“Fuck, woman.” Zoro snarled against her mouth. “You’re in a state.”

“Why are you still wearing clothes?” Tashigi whined, her voice had taken on a husky quality. She started tugging at the back of his t-shirt while still pressing kisses to his mouth.

“You didn’t really give me a chance to breathe.” Zoro chuckled and eased her back on his thighs. Tashigi gripped his knees and watched with her lip snagged between teeth as Zoro pulled his t-shirt over his head and discarded it at the end of the couch.

Gods, Tashigi flushed and let her eyes crawl over the rugged expanse of bronzed skin. Her thighs clenched as her gaze mapped the ridges of scars and muscle. Tashigi glanced up at his face and burned hotter when she saw his self-satisfied smirk.

“Trying to eat me alive with your eyes, Glasses?” He snickered and let his own eye rove over her skin. Tashigi shivered and sat up straighter, very aware she was in a pair of worn panties and bra. “Where’d this come from?” Zoro’s calloused finger lifted her bra strap out of the way to examine the shallow cut on her shoulder, a thin line of dried blood.

“It’s not important.” Tashigi said, clearing her throat, and reached up to move his hand away. “Not now anyway.” Zoro quirked his scarred brow and let Tashigi move his larger hand away until it rested on the front clasp of her bra.

“You better tell me eventually.” Zoro grumbled and hooked his finger around the clasp to tug her closer to him. “Because it is important.”

“I will. I will.” She reassured him, finding it strange he wanted to know about a silly little cut, and ran her fingers across the planes of Zoro’s chest. “But I’m a little busy right now.”

“Very busy.” Zoro groaned with a smile as Tashigi brushed her thumb across his nipple. Zoro flicked his wrist and unhooked the front of her bra. She moved her hands away from his chest to let Zoro slide her bra off her body.

Tashigi pounced on him, touching his chest and scars. She felt Zoro’s calloused hands snake up and down her back as she pressed into his broad chest, kissing the underside of his jaw. She nipped the skin of his neck and felt him squeeze her hips.

She cradled his cheek as she sucked his pulse. Zoro’s fingers slipped beneath the edge of her underwear, teasing the soft skin of her ass before squeezing. Tashigi grinned into his collar bone and then lightly bit his left pectoral, laved her tongue over the mark, and then making another right next to it.

Zoro pinched her ass and pulled her face back to his, then sucked her earlobe into his mouth.

Tashigi panted against Zoro’s ear and dug her fingers into his biceps. She ground shamelessly against the jean clad bulge beneath her. Her breasts brushed against bare chest as she rolled her hips.

Zoro left a hand on her ass, beneath her underwear, and moved the other upward to palm her breast. Tashigi moaned when he pinched her nipple between his thumb and forefinger. She sought his mouth, gasping and sloppy. Zoro chuckled against her mouth and twisted her nipple again.

“Gods, you’re an asshole.” She gasped and clutched his shoulders, leaning into the rough fingers on her breast.

“You like it.” Zoro hummed as he kissed down her neck, before taking the other nipple into his mouth.

“Oh.” Tashigi’s eyes fluttered closed as she focused on his teeth and tongue circling her nipple. Her underwear was damp and it wasn’t from the rain. She wanted the fingers on her breast to slip into the wetness between her thighs. “Zoro. Zoro. Touch me, please.” Gods, begging? Really, Tashigi?

“I am touching you, Tashigi.” Zoro muttered around her nipple.

“No, down—ugh, down _there_.” Tashigi blushed, she was literally writhing on top of him in her panties and she couldn’t even say it.

“You want me to touch your pussy?” Zoro asked in a husky voice. She could feel his smirk between her breasts.

“So vulgar.” Tashigi mumbled as her cheeks heated. “Yes, yes, touch my—”

Tashigi found herself tossed onto the couch, head resting on her few throw pillows. Zoro had managed to take her panties off when he’d moved her and she was naked before him while he knelt on the rug next to the couch.

Zoro gripped her right ankle and tugged her slightly diagonally across the couch. Tashigi’s breath hitched as Zoro’s good eye connected with hers and he kissed the skin of her ankle then moved up her leg, pressing kisses into her flushing skin. Tashigi’s breathing shallowed as his mouth reached the sensitive skin of her inner thigh.

Zoro stopped a hairsbreadth from the wetness between her thighs. He rested her knee on his shoulder, ran his hands up and down her thighs briefly before moving his hands down to the button of his jeans. Tashigi watched the muscles of his back tense and shift as he wiggled his jeans off his legs, leaving only his black boxer briefs behind.

Tashigi bit her lip when Zoro’s eye turned back to her. She squirmed and tried to inch closer towards his face. A strong calloused hand held her hips still, splayed across her lower abdomen, while Zoro’s other hand spread her thighs and settled her knees on his shoulder blades.

Tashigi keened loudly when his mouth made contact. Her finger clutched Zoro’s mussed green hair as he licked her labia. She bucked her hips when Zoro brushed his thumb against her clit.

Panting and twisting her hips against Zoro’s mouth, Tashigi felt his tongue thrust into her. His tongue ran along her labia again and again. Tashigi felt the flush of heat cover her chest and face; arousal pooled more intensely in her lower abdomen.

Zoro slipped a finger easily into her. Tashigi rolled her hips against the sudden sensation. Zoro nipped her clit, causing Tashigi to squeak and buck her hips. Zoro chuckled against her vulva and started licking harder, thrusting his finger at the same time.

Her breathing shallowed and her moans where high and breathy as Zoro added another finger, curling the two digits. Tashigi clenched around his fingers and squeezed the side of Zoro’s head with her thighs. She rolled her hips against his tongue as Zoro scissored and curled his thrusting fingers.

Tashigi gasped as a third finger stretched her. Her back arched and she felt the buildup in her lower abdomen. Zoro grunted against her clit as Tashigi twisted her fingers in his hair. She closed her eyes, heels pressed hard into Zoro’s back, as the heat in her abdomen reached a crescendo. Her vaginal walls spasmed and oh, _oh_ , shoved her over the edge into blissful finality.

Boneless, Tashigi’s hands slid out of Zoro’s hair.

“Don’t you look relaxed.” Zoro rumbled as he kissed up her stomach. Tashigi’s eyes fluttered open when he dropped a kiss under her right ear.

“Stop sounding so proud of yourself.” Tashigi huffed as her cheeks flared at the satisfied smirk that twisted Zoro’s face. She pushed herself lazily into a sitting position. Zoro held a steadying hand to her ribs as she dragged her legs up under her.

“I should be.” Zoro snickered as he thumbed the underside of her breasts. “Your glasses are askew.” He touched the side of her face, moving stray hair from her face.

“Oh, just go get the condoms from my bedside drawer.” Tashigi blushed and adjusted her glasses. Exactly when they’d become disturbed, she didn’t know, but it was still an immense lack of control on her part.

“So impatient.” Zoro hummed and tapped her forehead, then stood.

Tashigi took several deep breaths as she listened to him pad into her bedroom. She became aware of the wetness that was all over her thighs. No wonder Zoro was so smug, gods you’d think she’d never slept with him before.

“Stop thinking.” Zoro said gruffly as he returned. Tashigi looked up in time to watch him drop his boxer briefs. Her breathing faltered at the sight of his bobbing cock. Why was all of him unfairly attractive? Dicks weren’t supposed to look pretty.

Zoro dropped onto the couch and handed her the foil wrapped condom, then he dragged Tashigi back onto his lap. She squeaked as she was pressed into Zoro’s bare chest, his dick trapped between them. He kissed her neck, then her lips.

Tashigi reached between them and wrapped a hand around Zoro’s dick. He groaned and dropped his head to her shoulder. She jerked her hand up his shaft rapidly, grip gentle but firm. She felt Zoro’s ragged breath against her shoulder and he kissed her collarbone.

Tashigi released Zoro’s dick and tore open the condom, then rolled it down his length.

Zoro kissed her deeply, tongue sliding against her own, as he lined himself up to her entrance. Tashigi shuddered as the tip brushed her clit. Then she sank onto him with a guttural sigh.

“Fuck.” Zoro groaned and his hands clamped around her hips.

“Gods.” Tashigi exhaled softly, content, as she adjusted to Zoro inside her, widening her knees that rested on either side of his hips. She rocked her hips, hands flat against Zoro’s pectorals.

Zoro jerked to meet her rolling hips and he nipped her shoulders and collarbones. Hands on her hips and his shoulders tightened and bruised as the pace increased. Hard thrusts, the slapping of sweaty skin, and mingled breathy moans.

“Zoro, harder, please.” Tashigi panted and leaned back in his lap, resting her hands on Zoro’s knees.

Smirking and grunting, Zoro strengthened his grip on her hips and lifted her up and dropped her back on his dick, hard and fast. Tashigi cried out at the sensation as Zoro hit a spot deep within her. The roll of her hips had become sloppy and shifted into the field of erratic movements as she felt heat building in her stomach for the second time.

Zoro dragged her forward, squishing their chests together as he moved Tashigi up and down, faster and faster. Tashigi buried one hand in his hair and tugged, eliciting a pleased growl from Zoro. She snaked another hand down where she and Zoro met rapidly; Tashigi pressed and circled her clit with her thumb as the pace increased even more.

Tashigi peaked with a startled cry, thumb pressed to her clit and finger nails creating crescents in the side of Zoro’s corded neck. Another wave of fire and pleasure rocked through her as Zoro bit down at the juncture of her neck and shoulder, thrusting up hard and stilling as he followed her over the edge.

Her legs were just a little numb.

“I think you drew blood.” Zoro mumbled into the hollow of Tashigi throat as she released the nails dug into his neck.

“Says the man who bit me.” Tashigi laughed as she idly stroked his shoulders and upper chest.

“I give what I get.” Zoro snickered, pulling his head back, and moved Tashigi’s wandering hands to the two marks on his chest.

“I-I may have gotten a little carried away.” Tashigi blushed and refused to look Zoro in the eyes, despite the fact that he was still soft inside of her. “Sorry.” Tashigi made to wiggle of him.

“I don’t mind.” Zoro said and only allowed Tashigi to move off him enough for his dick to slip out of her, then he pulled her back against him. Tashigi squeaked, feeling Zoro’s hands moving behind her ass to tug and tie off the condom.

“You better not drop that on my floor.” Tashigi hissed.

“Where else am I gonna put it?” Zoro grumbled and dropped the used condom onto his own boxer briefs.

“Well, we could get up and you could throw it away.” Tashigi countered and tried to wiggle out of Zoro’s lap again. He gently held her there and shook his head.

“Not until you tell me about the cut.” Zoro brushed a calloused finger over the thin red line on her shoulder. “Paper cutter in the office go rouge?”

Tashigi wished. That would be less embarrassing.

“No.” Tashigi sighed and slumped a little in Zoro’s lap. “Even more stupid and humiliating. I fucked up, got ahead of myself on a case because we had one of three suspects in custody. I went into an unknown apartment without back up and nearly lost my head to a baseball bat.” She shivered slightly at the memory of hearing the bat before she sensed it. Zoro’s hands, which were clenching and unclenching on her hips, brought his own black t-shirt into view and tugged it over her head.

“You kicked ass, right?” He asked gruffly. Eyebrow quirked and dark eyes hard.

“Yeah.” Tashigi nodded, adjusting the warm shirt against her clammy skin. “Not as quickly as I would’ve liked. They were both unarmed, until the little one picked up a kitchen knife.”

“One of them had a bat.” Zoro said incredulously. “That’s unarmed?”

“In comparison to my Shigure and gun, yeah.” Tashigi answered, defensively. She felt bad enough that Evan got impaled on Shigure, but no matter how awful the two men were she wouldn’t use her gun or the sharp edge of her blade; not unless they were armed in equal measure.

“How’d they get the drop on you?” Zoro asked. Tashigi flushed under his probing gaze. “I know you’ve trained to be aware of your surroundings.”

“I wasn’t really paying attention.” Tashigi muttered in shame. “My awareness is quiet weak when I’m not focused.” While Zoro seemed to be primed and aware at all times, Tashigi had to make a significant effort to focus and extend her awareness around her; she couldn’t maintain it constantly, nor could she do it with her back turned or eyes closed.

“That’s gonna change.” Zoro huffed.

“Eh?” Tashigi cocked her head and looked down at the green haired man. His brow was furrowed and he was staring intently at the thin mark on her shoulder, just above Monet’s bullet scar. “What’s that mean?”

“Oh, nothing.” Zoro hummed, patting her bottom, small secretive smile on his lips.

Tashigi squinted suspiciously at him. Her aching muscles telling her that early morning training was about to get even more brutal.

“Sure.” She said, absolutely unconvinced.

They sat in silence for several moments. Tashigi played with the hem of Zoro’s shirt as she slowly became aware that he was still naked beneath her and that she’d just had sex with Roronoa Zoro again. She was deeply screwed.

“So,” Zoro began blandly, “only once, eh?” His grin was crooked and Tashigi looked up at the ceiling to fight off her blush.

“Technically twice.” She mumbled. “Now thrice.”

“Yeah, but you made the rules.” Zoro said. “So, what do you want?” His brows were pulled into a frown.

“I want it to be more than once.” Tashigi said softly, twisting her fingers together.

“Well, anytime you want, I’ll be down.” He chuckled, brushing her hair off her shoulders.

“Gods, Zoro,” Tashigi said with a huffing laugh, “you’re a man, not a vibrator.” She contemplated the offer her given her for a moment. “No, if we are going to this, we need a comprehensive set of rules.”

“That should not be a sentence that sounds sexy.” Zoro groaned, rubbing his hand across his face. “I’m not gonna think about it.”

“First off,” Tashigi clambered off Zoro’s lap, intent on finding a legal pad, “it can’t be just about me, your needs must be met too.” She padded into her study, pushing papers aside to look for her trusty pad of paper. She only had the one and it was currently lost somewhere in her casefiles and spare papers.

“Are you making the rules now?” Zoro asked in disbelief.

“Yeah, why not?” Tashigi turned, pausing her pawing through drawers for her legal pad, and looked at Zoro, who was gazing at her over the back of the couch.

“Well,” Zoro’s eyelid dropped and his dark gaze turned fiery, “you’re wearing my shirt and no underwear. There’s only one more condom…” He trailed off with a seductive smirk.

“Ah, thanks for reminding me.” Tashigi cried and yanked the legal pad from the drawer. She walked around the desk, grabbing a pen. “Buy condoms.” She muttered and scribbled at the top of the legal pad. “Actually, maybe you should do that, I don’t know what you prefer.”

“Glasses.” Zoro was suddenly very naked in front of her.

“Yes?” Tashigi asked, turning slightly red under his heady gaze.

“I’m trying to say I’d like to fuck you again.” Zoro growled, closing the space between them. “Preferably now.”

“Oh.” Tashigi squeaked as Zoro’s arousal pressed against her thigh. “Oh.” She leaned into him a little. “I suppose the very comprehensive list of rules can wait a bit.”

“Wonderful.” Zoro said roughly into her ear and carried her off to her bedroom.

*************************

“What are we doing, Zoro?” Tashigi asked as she stood in the middle of the practice room. Shigure was over against the wall, but Zoro still had all three of his swords and a blindfold in his hands. “Please don’t say having sex in the practice room, because Mihawk-san yelled at us for almost kissing.”

“Literally never even crossed my mind.” Zoro chuckled. “Gods, Glasses, you’re such a perv.” He smirked at her as he twisted the blindfold between his hands.

“I am not.” Tashigi hissed, face aflame from embarrassment. “Just what else is a person supposed to think a blindfold is for?”

“Training, you kinky little shit.”

“I’m not kinky!” Tashigi squawked.

“Are you sure? Because I’ve got some very damning marks on my—”

“Shut up! What kind of training?”

“Well, Glasses,” Zoro said smugly, “you’re going to have to put the blindfold on and find that out.”

“Oh, screw you, Roronoa.” Tashigi snatched the blindfold out of his hands.

“You have, a few times now.”

Tashigi huffed and tied the blindfold over her eyes so she wouldn’t have to look at Zoro’s smug face. Absolutely insufferable, she was regretting becoming casual with him for the jokes he was making alone. Gods, this was a mess, they’d only decided on it the night before.

“Get out of your head, Glasses.” Zoro called and Tashigi jumped slightly. “Get into a defensive stance.”

Tashigi tensed and staggered her legs, raising her arms in front of her, curling her hands into fists. She waited with baited breath for Zoro to attack. Listening for the disturbance of air that preceded an attack or the shift of the mat that signaled swift movement.

She wondered why it was taking so long for Zoro to attack.

“Take off your blindfold, Tashigi.” Zoro’s voice was practically in her ear and Tashigi’s stomach sank. She’d heard nothing.

Tashigi removed the blindfold slowly and sucked in a harsh breath.

Enma’s sinister blade hovered a hairsbreadth from her nose. The waves of power rolling off the blade increased tenfold as Tashigi whipped off the blindfold completely, her senses sharpening as her eyes focused.

“How did I miss that?” Tashigi stuttered. Panic and inadequacy coiled in her gut.

“Because,” Zoro drawled next to her, chest pressed to her shoulder as he sheathed Enma, “despite how shitty your eyesight is and how often you refuse to wear your glasses, you still rely on your sight the most out of all your senses. The moment that visibility is lost or dimmed, you’re fucked.”

She pressed a hand to her forehead. How had she survived this far? Her senses were decent, excellent even on a good day, why were they failing her now? Smoker’s blind rage from the other day came back to her, breaking protocol and going in alone. Tashigi had never gone in alone before, she’d always had Smoker at her back or a loyal G-5 officer scrabbling after her. Even when going after Baines she’d had Jango and Fullbody following after her—albeit with significant lag—but she’d been snuck up on then too.

She couldn’t sense a threat unless it was in her face.

“Help me fix this.” She hissed fiercely, turning to look up at Zoro.

“Put the blindfold back on.” Zoro smiled, a feral, proud thing. “This is going to hurt.”

“Good.”

***********************

Smoker scowled at his desk.

Tashigi took a shuddering breath and stood up for the eighth time that day. She’d attempted to speak to her superior earlier in the day, but she’d always been interrupted. She’d started to think her coworkers were doing it on purpose after Hina whisked Smoker off to lunch—that never happened, Smoker ate at his desk like a good workaholic.

She tugged the hem of her pink and orange polka-dot dress shirt and moved through the bullpen. No one stopped her.

“Sir.” She said shakily as she reached Smoker’s desk. “I would like to—”

“Ah, detective, good you’re here.” Smoker stood and Tashigi gaped at him, confused. “Did you eat yet?”

“I had some yogurt and granola.” Tashigi coughed and gestured vaguely at her desk.

“Not enough.” Smoker grunted. “Come, we’re going to Moda’s.” He stood and brushed past her toward the lobby.

“Oh, well, uh, okay.” Tashigi stuttered and followed him.

Moda’s Diner had its usual post-lunch crowd customers. With young Moda herself was working the counter and she smiled at the two detectives as they entered. The blonde girl whirled over as Tashigi and Smoker took their seats in a booth.

“Afternoon, detectives,” she said brightly, “what can I get you?”

Smoker ordered a cheesesteak and Tashigi picked fish and chips.

“Techs found the bloody knife in one of the alleys you and Koby ordered them to look at.” Smoker said without preamble and Tashigi felt a small surge of pride. She wasn’t a complete failure as a detective. “Evan and Dio rolled on Lindsey the moment they could.”

“And Jeyne Lindsey?” Tashigi asked tentatively; Smoker didn’t seem as angry as he’d been the previous day. “Did she say why she did it?”

“She and the other two had been knocking over jewelry stores in Paradise, but she wanted a bigger payout with less traceable goods.” Smoker muttered. “She apparently didn’t think anyone would find Anders Gill’s body, or if they did, wouldn’t report it.” Moda brought two glasses of water. Tashigi idly ran her fingers around the rim, waiting for Smoker to finish. “All she wanted were the gemstones.”

“That’s it?” Tashigi asked, stomach twisting.

“What do you mean, ‘that’s it’?” Smoker asked quietly, cocking his head at Tashigi. “She was greedy and she wanted the diamonds, Gill was in the way.”

“I just thought…” Tashigi swallowed and then restarted her train of thought. “She spent months working her way into Gill’s life. To do all that, to play that long of a game, for only a handful of diamonds? It just seems so senseless.”

Anders Gill had believed Jayne Lindsey loved him, when the whole time she’d only wanted the gems he didn’t even own. Tashigi found it sad. Gill might not have been an upstanding citizen, but he’d just been trying to live. He had not deserved what Lindsey did to him, criminal or not.

“Crime makes no sense, Tashigi.” Smoker said, as gently as he could with his gruff voice. “People become unrecognizable when they decide that money is more important than anything else, including human life and freedom. You have to remember that not every criminal is going to be as palatable as the Strawhats.”

Tashigi started and made to open her mouth, but Moda plunked their food down before she could. She tucked into her food, trying to formulate an appropriate response.

“I don’t think that, Smoker-san.” Tashigi said quietly and Smoker raised a bushy eyebrow. “I know that the Strawhats are the exception to the rule when it comes to criminals. Technically, they don’t do anything illegal except disturbing the peace, inciting revolutions, and generally being public nuisances. I know that every time I go into a fight, I could die. I’ve known that since I was a rookie.”

“Then why are you so reckless?” Smoker huffed.

“Because you are.” Tashigi said bluntly. She’d come to this conclusion during her overthinking that morning. “I don’t do it purposefully, it’s just, I learned from you.”

Smoker was stormy and silent. Tashigi noted his jaw was clenching and unclenching rapidly. She hoped she hadn’t accidentally pissed him off beyond comprehension.

“Every time I look at you,” Smoker sighed and rubbed his face tiredly, “I see your father.” Tashigi sat up sharply. Entire body taunt, at the mention of her dad. “Most of the time, I see the far too cheerful detective who trained me, but on those occasions were you throw yourself recklessly into danger,” Smoker paused and looked out the diner window, “all I can see is your father on that very last day.”

Tashigi’s blood ran cold. The last day…the day her father went into that bank for the last member of the gang that killed her mother. His last day alive.

“He made me wait outside, while he went in alone.” Smoker said and looked Tashigi directly in the eyes. She suddenly had a very good idea as to why Smoker yelled at her the other day. The last Shoi he watched enter a building without backup came out in a body bag. “I can’t help but feel responsible for not following him. I can’t help but feel responsible for you now because of it.”

Smoker was not meant to be this raw. He was not meant to look at Tashigi with this weight in his eyes.

“Smoker-san,” Tashigi said carefully, “I appreciate the responsibility you feel for me and I will try to be more careful from now on. But you have to know sir, if something does happen to me please don’t feel liable. I am an adult, responsible for my own choices. Please don’t weigh yourself down on my account.” _It would probably kill me again_ , Tashigi thought.

“A futile effort, detective.” Smoker said with a sharp bark. “For much the same reason your father left me outside when he went to his death, I will continue to feel responsible for you.”

“Why?” Tashigi asked with a confused scowl. Smoker shook his head, with a slight smile too, and flagged Moda over for the check. “Why, Smoker-san?” Tashigi prompted again as she followed him out of Moda’s Diner.

“You’ll understand one day, girlie,” Smoker chuckled as he put two cigars in his mouth, “when you have your own stupid, reckless brats.”

“What?” Tashigi shrieked and tripped over a lip in the sidewalk. “Smoker-san!”

“Stop freaking out, detective, we have paperwork to do.”

“Ah—Yes sir!”

****************

Plata Julio lived in an apartment on the third floor of a building in the Burrows neighborhood. Tashigi looked at the meager information she had in her notebook on Julio’s encounter with Wolf’s Blood back in June.

Taking a deep breath, Tashigi knocked on the dark green apartment door.

The door creaked open. A sliver of a man’s face peered beyond the door chain. Gold-brown eyes narrowed as Julio assessed Tashigi on his doormat.

“Good Afternoon, Mr. Plata. I am Detective Shoi Tashigi. I called you the other day.” She made her voice measured and slow, holding up her badge clearly for the man beyond the door to see. Julio was the most paranoid of the three survivors, due solely to the nature of his encounter with the drug Wolf’s Blood.

“I expected you on a different day.” Julio grouched. Then he closed the door. Tashigi heard the clattering of multiple locks coming undone. Tashigi grimaced. Julio was absolutely justified in his paranoia. The bodies that surfaced of Fish Man Island was proof enough that this group was not to be trifled with.

“My apologies.” Tashigi said with genuine emotion as Julio opened the door, she hated disrupting precarious precured peace. “You are the last person I need to talk to about this subject. I thought it was best that I worked with expediency.” Julio’s apartment was in shades of brown, green, and mustard yellow. It would be a warm home, if the thick black out curtains weren’t drawn tight.

“That would explain the email I got the other day.” Julio grumbled, passing Tashigi to plop down in a leather armchair. Tashigi delicately took the edge of the couch close to him. “Some guy named Rex Kyle emailed me about starting a support group.”

“You should consider it.” Tashigi said helpfully. “Therapy is very beneficial.”

“I appreciate the advice.” Julio gave tight smile. Tashigi decided that he did not appreciate her advice and that they should move on.

“About the incident that happened in June.” Tashigi started and Julio tensed. “You may speak of it to your comfort level, but the more I know, then the easier it will be to track down the culprits.”

Julio chewed the inside of his lips, regarding Tashigi suspiciously. He looked like a man chased. Brown hair limp and tan skin washed out, with hollow cheeks and deep eyebags. The man had spent some time in the hospital after his overdose, where he’d become convinced that the hospital staff was trying to poison him, thusly he was painfully skinny.

“Alright. Alright.” Julio muttered, rubbing his face. “I’ll tell you.”

Tashigi flipped open her notebook and poised her pen over the thin lines.

“Would you start at the beginning of the night of June 5th?” She prompted and Julio rubbed his eyes.

“Yeah, yeah,” he sighed, “Marcus, Skip, Tommy, and I went out to Magnum, you know that big place covered in chrome?” Tashigi did know. It was one of the largest clubs in the G-5 section of the Divider Strip. Night Reign was bordering G-4. Dockside neighborhood was deep G-5 territory—Red Shanks controlled. East Canal was bordering G-4 again—Blackbeard controlled.

“I do.” Tashigi nodded. She had a decent area to work with, but Julio might know more. “What happened at Magnum?”

“We went out because Tommy knew this guy, Axel,” _Axel again_ , Tashigi mused, “who had said that he knew the best club in the city.” Julio laughed, scratching his cheek. “Tommy was on a personal quest to find the best club in the city. Like his bucket list.” Tashigi smiled along with him.

“Can you describe Axel to me?” Tashigi asked. “I’ve encountered his name before.”

“Sure. He’s kind of a rangy dude. Brown hair, but with blond frosted tips. Tool.” Julio snorted. “I’d say he was some frat loser playing a being a gangster, if I didn’t know better. Always dressed in bold clothes and talking way too loud.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “He had this scar on his left cheek.” Julio made a slicing moment from his left ear to the corner of his mouth. “Not deep, but wide enough to see.”

“Thank you, Julio.” Tashigi breathed as she noted down the description, hoping to run it through the database later. “So, you and your friends went to Magnum to meet Axel.” Julio nodded. “What happened next?”

“Skip, Tommy, and Marcus were already on something and semi-drunk, but I was the DD, or at least the person who’d be cognizant enough to call a rideshare at the end of the night.” Julio said. “I think when Axel offered to take us to the next club I’d only had a few beers, which didn’t make Axel happy.” Julio grimaced. “He said that the club was a secret and that I couldn’t be trusted. He gave me a pill.”

“Red? With a wolf on it?” Tashigi asked, not eagerly she hoped.

“No, just regular Molly.” Julio sighed. “Or maybe not regular, knocked my headspace for the entire ride to the club.” Tashigi winced. That loss of control would have left her unsteady. It seemed to be the same with Julio.

“Do you remember anything about when you arrived?” Tashigi prodded.

“Warehouses, dark warehouses everywhere. It was like the warehouse in front of us was meant to be the only source of sound and light. More bouncers than I’ve seen in my life around a club.” Julio rubbed his forehead. “Should’ve been a sign.”

“Even if it was,” Tashigi assured him, “no one would’ve blamed you for going along to minimize the damage.”

“I don’t think me being suspicious would have minimized anything.” Julio barked harshly.

“What else do you remember?” Tashigi said hurriedly, trying to steer the conversation away from bad territory.

“The club’s name is Haze.” Julio rasped. “Someone had taken a stencil and some spray paint to the warehouse door. It fit, really, considering how much fog was inside.”

“Haze.” Tashigi muttered and scribbled in her notebook. There was no known club Haze in Grandline City that she knew of. “How did you come by the drugs?”

The drugs that caused the deaths of Julio’s friends: Mori Skip, D’Aurelio Tommy, and Dean Marcus.

“There were these dancing girls, on pedestals,” Julio began shakily, “they were giving out these packets of red pills. I didn’t take one. I was chased down by my neighbor’s dick of a dog when I was six, kinda put me off anything in the canine family. That wolf they put on their product was awful.” Julio shivered. “There were a lot of people in the club and all of them were on something, I couldn’t tell who was gangster or civ.”

“You believe that it was a mixture?” Tashigi asked. Rocco Lisa hadn’t been cognizant enough to not any differences in the people around her.

“I saw people with guns and knives, one dude had nun chucks.” Julio sighed, “but then there were all the other people I see at clubs. Sorority girls, beach bros, trust fund kids, and any number of average joes.” He rolled his shoulders and leaned back in his chair. “I avoided anybody with a weapon, most clubs on the Strip don’t allow weapons. I should have made us leave then, but I didn’t. I went to the bar instead.”

“What happened there?” Tashigi asked in trepidation.

“I met a girl.” Julio looked a little dreamy and Tashigi suppressed a groan. There was always a girl. A damsel in distress that men would die for. She tugged her pink and orange polka-dot dress shirt self-consciously; Tashigi was not that girl, even in her clumsiest moments, she was still determined to fight or die under her own steam. “She was dressed liked a waitress, black dress and serving tray. Her hair was a washed out pink, like it had been bleached and dyed a while back. But her eyes, black as night and so sad.” Tashigi was about to roll her eyes, when something struck her as familiar about the girl’s description.

“Did she tell you her name?” Tashigi edged forward on the couch.

“Juniper.” Julio sighed, going stary-eyed. Tashigi blanched. This was a lead. More than a lead, proof that Juniper was still alive a year after her initial arrest and then disappearance.

“What happened next?” Tashigi pressed hurriedly. How did Julio go from talking to Juniper to found in an alley back at the Divider Strip?

“Axel came back.” Julio said and his face became pinched. “He said Juniper was talking too much and the Boss wanted to see her.”

“So Axel wasn’t the Boss?” Tashigi asked, trying to make a diagram of where Axel might fall in a hierarchy.

“Nah.” Julio shook his head. “The Boss was sitting in this roped off section in the corner of the club, far from the bar, but elevated enough to see everything. I could make out his face because he was wearing sunglasses and there were so many fog machines. But he was short and balding, dressed in all white too.” He rubbed the heels of his hands against his eyes. “I tried to follow her, because she looked so scared, but Axel stepped in my way. He said I was ‘too sober to be here’ and blew a whole bunch of red powder into my eyes.”

“And that worked?” Tashigi gaped. What kind of drug worked via ocular entry? How powerful was it? No wonder it killed much of its consumers.

“I don’t know if it was that or the liquid he made me drink after.” Julio sighed, pressing the heel of his palm to one of his eyes. “But the next thing I remember is waking up in the ambulance to the hospital.”

Julio and his friends had been picked up by ambulances in the behind Magnum on the Divider Strip after an anonymous call came in. Julio had been the only one standing, leaning against an the back wall of the club while his friends were in various states of collapse.

Mori Skip died on the way to the hospital.

D’Aurelio Tommy lived for twenty-four hours before experiencing a life ending stroke.

Dean Marcus had been declared brain dead and taken off life support after a week.

Tashigi felt that the prolonged deaths of Tommy and Marcus were the worst of it. No overdose was pretty or quick, but she felt the young men suffered unnecessarily at the hands of the drug. Julio’s survival of his overdose was based solely of his lack of imbibing beforehand, but he still suffered greatly afterwards. After one hit he suffered withdrawals for weeks.

She felt the criminals who made the drug were sadistic and irresponsible. Then again, who was Tashigi to try and rationalize why these people did what they did. It was only her job to catch them, understanding them was not a part of the job. _You won’t be able to if your try_. Jeyne Lindsey had proven that. _Senseless, absolutely senseless_.

“I am sorry, Julio.” Tashigi whispered faintly, putting her pen down against her notepad. “I know asking you these things is dredging up bad memories. If it is any consolation, you’ve given me enough information to narrow down my search.”

“You never said what you were searching for?” Julio said with a rough clearing of his throat. “Is it the club?”

Tashigi debated in her head what to say. Julio was a man without hope, locked away in his apartment and seeing enemies in every pedestrian. He could do with answering Kyle’s email.

“I’m looking for the girl.” Tashigi admitted, watching Julio carefully.

“Juniper?” Julio breathed, something alighting in his formerly dull eyes.

“Yes.” Tashigi said uncomfortably.

“Why?” Julio pressed and Tashigi pinched the bridge of her nose. Now she regretted it.

“She and four others were arrested for selling drugs on Fish Man Island.” Tashigi said in a clipped tone. “After their release it appears that Juniper was the only survivor in a massacre.” Julio went white.

“Shit. No wonder she was terrified that day.” Julio muttered, then he leaned forward. “What can I do to help?”

“You’ve helped enough.” Tashigi said shortly, closing her notebook. “What you need to do know is help yourself.” Julio frowned. “Answer Kyle’s email. Talk to him and Lisa.”

Julio opened his mouth in protest.

“Julio,” Tashigi stopped him, “I understand that it is hard and that you are afraid. If these people are targeting you, then I think it would be best to have a support system and to be at your best capacity. Especially if you have an interest in saving Juniper.”

Julio nodded, glum but apparently understanding.

“You’ll keep me updated?” Julio asked as Tashigi stood from the couch.

“Within the boundaries of the case.” Tashigi confirmed with a nod.

She waited until she was outside the apartment to call Agent Sentomaru.

“Ah, Detective Tashigi.” The man’s voice sounded amused. “Do you have more information for my search.”

“Four places.” Tashigi confirmed “I want you to search the area between all four points.”

“Naturally.” Sentomaru chuckled.

As Tashigi rattled off the two clubs and two neighborhoods, she allowed herself a modicum of hope. Mata Juniper would be found and from there Tashigi would dismantle the whole twisted network that caused Kyle, Lisa, and Julio’s pain.

This she promised herself.


	17. July V

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm iffy on this chapter, part of me doesn't feel like the writing is consistent, but a lot of me knows it's because there is more exposition and set up and I like doing that less. I'm a conflict kind of person, but that will come. Mwahahahahaaaa...

“I need to find an apartment.” Isuka’s voice crackled over the phone when Tashigi picked up during her lunch hour.

“Well, good afternoon to you too.” Tashigi laughed, catching bits of bacon that flew out of her mouth. She cursed herself for forgetting she was eating a BLT. “An apartment here?”

“Yes, there.” Isuka chuckled. “You did technically offer me a job.”

“Telling you there is an opening is not offering you a job.” Tashigi huffed with a smile. “Assuming by your sudden desire to rent a shitty apartment here, means you got the job?”

“You practically begged me, Weenie.” Isuka snickered. “But yeah, I did.” Tashigi loved how proud her best friend sounded, like the G-5 was someplace special to go.

“Well, if you do some research online,” Tashigi mused, slumping back into her chair, “then come up and stay at my place and we can explore your choices together.” Tashigi expected her to take a few weeks to find places and then she’d see her in August.

Of course, Isuka liked to surprise her.

“Excellent. I’ll see you in a week.”

Tashigi choked on her water.

“What?” She rasped, pounding her chest to clear her pipes. Jango and Fullbody raised their eyebrows at her and she waved them off. “Already?”

“Weenie,” Isuka scoffed good-naturedly, “I started looking for apartments right after you left.” Tashigi rolled her eyes. They really were too much alike.

“And you call me neurotic, Booger.” Tashigi puffed air through her cheeks.

“With love, with love.” Isuka assured. “So, is next week alright?”

“Lemme check my schedule.” Tashigi clicked over to her email on her computer. She checked the shared calendar for the detectives, then her personal one, before finally refreshing her inbox.

She sucked in a harsh breath. Sentomaru had sent her an email, asking to see her because he’d found something. She forwarded it to Smoker and Garp, before turning her attention back to Isuka on the phone.

“Next weekend will be good.” Tashigi said, distracted. “You come down late Friday, leave Sunday or Monday. Could probably tell the landlords the dates you want to look at the apartments?”

“Sounds like a plan.” Isuka agreed. “See you next Friday, Weenie.”

“Bye-bye, Booger.”

Tashigi hung up and scuttled over to Smoker’s desk.

“Did you see—”

“Yep.” Smoker growled, rolling up his shirt sleeves.

“Should we—”

“Yep.” Smoker huffed, grabbing his jute. “Garp is coming with.”

The older man appeared in the doorway of his office, unusually dour.

“Sentomaru say anything specific?” Garp growled and Tashigi shook her head.

“The email just said to come down to the Federal Forensic Science building.” Tashigi chewed the inside of her cheek. “Do you think that means bad news?”

“Could be bad. Could be good.” Smoker grumbled. “But it most likely means things just got very complicated.”

The three of them slid into Smoker’s White Hunter muscle car and roared towards Marineford.

*********************

“I always knew you G-5 officers would give me something good.” Sentomaru said over his shoulder as he led the three into a small conference room off of Sentomaru’s laboratory. “What I didn’t know is that you would point out a hole in my system.”

“Come again?” Tashigi asked, brows furrowed.

“Cut to the chase.” Smoker growled and Garp put a hand on his shoulder.

Sentomaru picked up a tablet off the conference table with a frown towards Smoker.

“Using the four locations Tashigi-san gave me,” Sentomaru began, “I was able to reveal an area where Mata Juniper _might_ be.” On one of the three large screens mounted on the wall closest to the door a map of the New World Districts of Grandline City, focusing on the G-5 and G-4 areas with the space between Night Reign, Magnum, the Dockside neighborhood, and the East Canal neighborhood.

“Wide area.” Garp said as he looked over the red shaded area that spanned from parts of the G-5 to a sliver of the G-4. “What about it?”

“I scanned the cameras in the area for Mata Juniper.” Sentomaru said, pulling up feeds on the other two screens. Both appeared to show the same street corner from two different angles. “We got lucky.”

Tashigi leaned forward eagerly as Sentomaru enlarged a portion of the shaded map down in the far corner. It was a rougher area, the patrols that roll through there were sporadic and generally called away by gang scuffles.

On the screens, a sleek black car pulled up to the corner and a willowy girl stumbled out. An unknown figure in the car passed off a large black duffle to the girl and she stowed it under a nearby set of iron steps. Sentomaru enhanced the image on the screen until Mata Juniper’s hollow, terrified face filled the screen. Her hair was dyed highlighter orange this time.

“You found her.” Tashigi breathed happily. Relief flooded her and she felt a knot in the middle of her shoulders loosen and sag.

“On the corner of Dupont and McCoy in the East Canal neighborhood. That’s the good news.” Sentomaru said. The knot returned to Tashigi’s shoulders. Of course it wasn’t going to be that easy. She rubbed her forehead.

“What’s the bad news?” Smoker sighed and folded his arms.

“This.” Sentomaru said and tapped his tablet. The video of Mata Juniper on the screen sped up, like when the Nuns used to fast forward through sex scenes during movie nights at Loguetown High School for Girls. A whole day past on screen as people walked up to Juniper and received drugs from the black duffle. The black car returned as the sun began to set and darken the city streets.

“I am to assume we’re going to follow the car with the cameras?” Garp asked, bushy brows furrowed.

“Not entirely.” Sentomaru said slowly as he fiddled with the tablet, switching the screens to follow the black car around the next corner, then another until—

“Why is it black?” Tashigi asked as the screens turned dark again.

“Because after this point,” he pointed to a street just past the red shaded area, “the cameras have been destroyed or dismantled.” Tashigi’s eyebrows climbed into her hair.

“Shit.” Garp grumbled and put a hand over his mouth. “How bad is it?”

“This bad.” Sentomaru said and suddenly the map on the screen drew back. In addition to the shaded red area there was a shaded grey area that was set deep in the New World districts, where patrols only went once a month and only for civilian emergency calls. It straddled the line between G-5 and G-4 areas.

“Someone made a literal grey area.” Tashigi breathed as she traced the wonky grey shape on the screen. “This is contested territory.”

“There hasn’t been a brawl there in ages.” Smoker mumbled. “Both Red-Hair and Blackbeard have much more valuable pieces of territory to fight over.”

“Did you check the rest of the New World districts for other spots like this?” Garp asked.

“Oh yeah.” Sentomaru huffed and his brow darkened.

The screen pulled far away, showing all the New World districts, even down to the edge of the city. Four more grey spots bloomed in contested areas of the city, especially towards the edge of the city.

“Do you think that all those spots have to do with our drug case?” Tashigi asked, choked. Those were big areas to cover and some of them were deep in New World gang territory.

“Probably not.” Sentomaru sighed and several maroon dots flared on the screen, clustered mostly near the Redline River and parts of the G-5. “These are all the overdoses from the drug, Wolf’s Blood. Clearly closer to this grey spot than the others. What is interesting is this.” A blue dot appeared in the middle of one of the grey sections hugging the coastline warehouse district. “Baines’ warehouse.”

“So those other grey areas are probably related to other parts of this organization?” Smoker guessed and Sentomaru nodded. Tashigi felt both faint and hopeful. The list Law had given her might not gather dust on her desk, but five spaces was more than she was prepared for. _Human trafficking. Drugs. Guns. Organs. Could there be another branch of crime unconsidered?_

“How did such large gaps go unnoticed?” Tashigi asked quietly. “This organization has been operating for three years at least.” She rubbed the side of her head.

“It’s the places they choose.” Sentomaru defended. “They are not parts of valuable territory, but not claimed by any one gang.”

“Well beyond police influence.” Smoker added.

“Is there any way to fix it?” Garp asked.

“Yes.” Sentomaru supplied, but hesitated.

“What?” Tashigi asked, not liking his hesitation.

“Several of the cameras have probably been physically damaged.” Sentomaru said. “My crew and I would need to go into those areas to fix the cameras. It would draw attention to the fact that we know that the cameras have been tampered with.”

“The entire organization could clear out.” Tashigi realized and Sentomaru nodded.

“We’d need to keep these regions in the dark for an indeterminant amount of time, until the case is completed.” Garp sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Which could be forever with the apparent reach of these people.”

There was silence over the conference room, as all four members of law enforcement looked at the blind spots in their city. Spots that allowed their citizens to come to harm.

“But it’s a start.” Tashigi said after a moment. “Even if we can’t fix the cameras, we know they are down. Surely that means we can monitor the surrounding areas?” Her tone was hopeful, but this case had consistently proven that hope might not be the best thing to hold on to.

“Right you are, Detective.” Sentomaru said with a smile. “I’ve already assembled a team to watch the feeds around those areas, save the one you already delt with.”

“I suppose it’s just on us then to catch the drug dealing pricks.” Smoker grumbled.

“Best get started then.” Garp said with a wide grin. “You got your wish, Tashigi-girl, this is now an official case.”

Tashigi straightened her shoulders and looked at Juniper’s face on the screen. Justice will be served.

*********************

“Three days of planning and this is the best you could come up with?” Tashigi hissed into the microphone hidden in the lining of her dirty pink coat. She loitered in the shadows of an alley near the intersection of Dupont and McCoy in the East Canal neighborhood. It was nearly dawn and Mata Juniper was going to be dropped off by her handlers soon.

“Oi, it took a long time to work this out.” Fullbody whined over the com in Tashigi’s ear. “This place is heavily watched for a lonely damn street corner.”

“You do know this isn’t any old street corner, right?” Koby asked over the radio.

“Hina thinks Fullbody-kun was being glib.” Hina chuckled and Tashigi suppressed a laugh with her hand over her mouth.

“Hina-chan!” Fullbody and Jango cooed. They were posted in a car up the street from the corner, if Tashigi peeked around the corner and strained her eyes, she could see them huddled together in the battered blue car.

“Can we please stop using official police coms for personal discussions?” Smoker grumbled over the radio. He was in a black car across from Tashigi’s alley.

“I think that discussion was case relevant.” Jango hummed.

“How come I have to be on the roof?” Helmeppo whined. He and Koby were posted on abandoned buildings across from the corner.

“Because I said so.” Smoker harrumphed.

Such a statement could have prompted more whining, had Hina not interrupted.

“Look sharp, Hina sees a car coming.” Being located on the street across from the corner and facing the direction the car usually came on the camera feeds. She was also in a dark car.

Tashigi peaked around the corner of the alleyway. The sleek black car pulled up to the corner and Mata Juniper stumbled out. Tashigi’s curled her hands reflexively at her hip, reaching for Shigure before she remembered she’d had to leave her sword with Smoker. A muscle jumped in her jaw as she watched as the unseen person in the car practically threw a black duffle bag at Juniper.

“Breathe, detective.” Smoker rumbled.

“Yes, sir.”

“How long do we wait until Tashigi-chan can go up to her?” Koby asked.

“Hina thinks we should wait for several customers to go past.”

“Cool, so I’m going to be here all day.” Tashigi groaned and slumped against the alley wall. She rolled her ankles in the heeled combat boots that had been dug out of lost and found. The dirty silver sequined miniskirt and off-white crop tank top also came from lost and found, where things go to die after long crazy weekends in the drunk tank. The dirty, fluffy pink coat came from a sealed box in evidence, from an undercover prostitution bust.

Tashigi did several rounds of lunges, squats, and basic stretches.

The sun crawled across the sky as her coworkers kept up a steady stream commentary on the revolving door of customers getting goods from Juniper’s duffle.

It must’ve been sometime after noon, Tashigi was leaning bleary eyed against the alley entrance, when a trio of rough looking men stumbled up to Juniper.

“I don’t like the look of those three.” Fullbody muttered.

“I don’t think they have any money.” Helmeppo added.

Tashigi’s hands twitched as she watched the three men crowd close to Juniper. She could see the whites of the girl’s eyes as the got too close.

“New plan.” She hissed into the mic.

“Fucking hells, Tashigi, do not—” Smoker began but Tashigi had already scurried out of her spot.

“Don’t be so stingy, girlie.” Said one of the men in a guttural voice.

“No money. No product.” Juniper hissed, but her voice was whispery soft, terrified.

“Listen, stupid, we can—”

“You can fuck off, is what you can do.” Tashigi loosened her shoulders, cocked a hip and dropped her eyes. _You are a self-confident, sultry woman of the night, who doesn’t take any shit_. Succubus Tashigi shooed Saint and Swordswoman Tashigi onto one shoulder and took control from Tashigi’s head. “You ain’t got the dough, then you can fuckin’ go. Make way for the actual hard workin’ stiffs.”

Tashigi elbowed the men out of the way. She dug a handful of crumpled Beri from her bra and held it out to Juniper. There was grumbling from behind her and one guy looked like he was going to say something, Tashigi cut him off.

“You don’t get to say shit until you let Johns suck on you tits, so scram.” Tashigi snarled and glared, fighting off her blush. _Can’t even say the word tits, Glasses? For shame_. Tashigi shook Zoro from her head and smirked back at Juniper as the men slunk off. “Men, am I right?”

“Hn.” Juniper grunted warily. “You’re new.”

“The market for sleaze is much better here than in Sabaody.” Tashigi hummed. “A girl’s gotta feed her bad habits. Whatcha got?”

Carefully, Juniper pulled her duffle from beneath the iron steps. Tashigi chewed the inside of her cheek as the bag was carefully unzipped and a baggie of red powder was pulled out. A shiver went down her spine as she saw the snarling, split tongued wolf stamped on the packet.

Juniper took the sweaty, crumpled wad of Beri and slapped the packet in Tashigi’s palm.

“Aces, friend.” Tashigi grinned and waggled the baggie. Juniper returned her grin nervously, eyes still suspicious.

“Yeah…whatever.” Her tone still wary and Tashigi figured that pressing more would be too much.

“Ta!” With a jaunty salute, Tashigi swaggered away. 

Her confident walk lasted only until she rounded the corner at the end of the street, at which point Saint Tashigi kicked Succubus Tashigi in the butt and resumed control. Tashigi sagged against the brick of the nearest wall.

“Shuffle yourself to the alleyway, detective.” Smoker hummed over the com. She did her best to follow through, considering how her brain was trying to convince her she’d failed, then there was the matter of feeling deeply exposed based on her clothing. She tugged her skirt down.

“How’d I do?” Tashigi mumbled as she caught her breath in the alley.

“Hina is always impressed by Tashigi-chan’s undercover work.” The pink-haired woman hummed. “Hina wonders if Tashigi-chan can be that self-confident outside of work?”

“Are we going to talk about the rhyming?” Helmeppo asked. He was rightly ignored.

“Unlikely.” Jango laughed. “Hey, Tashigi-girl, those are some hella realistic hickies on your legs, how’d you do that?”

_What?_ Tashigi thought and looked down. _Damnit, Zoro!_ Several circular bruises littered the insides of her thighs and there was even one on her calf. The fearsome swordsman was terribly enthusiastic when it came to distracting her from work.

“Shot glass.” Tashigi stuttered. “Fullbody said to look…experienced. I got a little carried away.” Koby giggled at her admission.

“I do believe my exact words were ‘well fucked’ but sure ‘experienced’ works too.” Fullbody chuckled.

“You can’t say fuck.” Tashigi hissed. “This is a professional situation.”

“You literally just said fuck.” Koby pointed out.

“Oh my gods,” Jango groaned, “Koby, you’re a baby, you can’t swear.”

“I hate all of you.” Smoker sighed. “All of you.”

****************

When the black car came back around, the G-5 were ready.

Tashigi had slipped into Smoker’s car after meeting with Juniper, placing the Wolf’s Blood powder in an evidence bag. They alternated between watching Juniper and resting their eyes.

“Stake outs are only good when you can get terrible street food.” Smoker mused as he shifted in his seat, picking at the bologna sandwich he’d packed himself. “I hate the ones in the middle of nowhere.”

“Remember that food stall in the middle of the desert, when we were watching Mr. 11 and Miss Thursday?” Tashigi giggled, the heat of the sun beating down on the car made her lazy and goofy.

“You mean that crazy old lady who served us deep-fried lizard at extreme markup?” Smoker barked in laughter. “I heard she started a whole chain of fried lizard restaurants based of the Beri she wrung from us.”

“They were good lizards.” Tashigi admitted, forehead pressed to the window of the car. “Heads up, they’re back.”

They watched Juniper get into the backseat.

“Jango. Fullbody. You’re up.” Smoker said into his mic and they watched as the dark red car followed the black one at a safe distance. “Hina.” Rusted green car followed the red car. “Brats.” Dark grey followed green.

“Can really feel the respect, sir.” Koby chuckled.

“Hush.” Smoker started the battered brown beater that they’d borrowed from impound. “I hate rental cars.”

“Technically not a rental.” Tashigi corrected.

“Still shitty.”

They followed the cars.

“Jango. Fullbody.” Tashigi said into the coms. “Do you remember what to do if they get suspicious?”

“Aye.” Jango answered. “Won’t take long in these empty streets. You guys stay a good distance back, yeah? Kobs has our position on GPS.”

“What I’d really like is a GPS on Mata Juniper.” Koby grumbled.

“Baby steps. Baby steps.” Tashigi muttered.

It took several twists and turns for the black car to get suspicious.

“Shit.” Fullbody grumbled over the coms. “We gotta peel out, they’re suspicious.”

“Gotcha.” Smoker said. “Hina, pull up.”

“Hina will, Smoker-kun.”

Tashigi watched Jango and Fullbody’s dark red car pull away from the line far ahead, and Hina’s pulled forward slightly. Helmeppo and Koby’s car hung further back as did Smoker and Tashigi.

It took less time for them to get suspicious of Hina.

“Hina has been found out.” Came her sad sigh and they watched her battered green car turn down a side street.

“I’m going to be dealing with that later.” Smoker grumbled. Hina got just a little bit emotional when she did not excel. Tashigi remembered the numerous ‘Hina fail’ incidents.

“Moving up.” Helmeppo said and the dark grey car pulled into position.

The black car began taking more turns and the streets grew even more desolate.

“This isn’t good.” Tashigi muttered as she took in the increased number boarded windows. “With less people, they’re going to realize we’re following them.” Swordswoman Tashigi became stiffer and more vigilant on Tashigi’s head.

True enough, Helmeppo and Koby had to pull off the tail early.

It was down to Smoker and Tashigi.

She could see the outline of three shapes in the rear window. The one in the middle was shorter than the others. One of the taller ones turned to look behind. Tashigi dropped her head and Smoker shifted in the driver seat; he wore a baseball cap and sunglasses.

“Should we give up?” Tashigi asked, peering over the dashboard slightly. She didn’t want to, but she also didn’t want to endanger Mata Juniper’s life.

“Let’s give it a bit.” Smoker said carefully. Tashigi nodded mutely, fingers clenching and unclenching around Shigure.

The muscles in her shoulders coiled and tensed as she watched the two taller figures in the back of the car turn around multiple times.

“Sir.”

“Hang on.”

“Smoker-san!”

“Fine. Fine.” Smoker grumbled and turned down the next available narrow street.

Tashigi ran her hands through her hair nervously. _Too close that was too close_.

“Sorry, sir.” She muttered, forehead pressed to the dashboard.

“It‘s fine.” Smoker sighed. “You’ve invested a lot of time in this case. I know that it is personal for you. We’ll keep a lookout on the corner and try again.”

Tashigi winced, but was grateful Smoker understood. She rested her forehead against the dashboard again. Smoker looked over at her, before awkwardly reaching out his hand and patting her fluffy pink shoulder.

“We’ll get ‘em, detective.” He reassured. “It is just going to take time and patience.”

“I fear we may not have even that.”

**********************

Friday was hot, too hot. Tashigi plucked her short-sleeve highlighter pink linen button up off her chest. This is the time of year where formal dress shorts should be acceptable, she thought, but her khaki pants worked alright.

Huffing, she turned down her street, Tashigi stopped short. There was a crowd in from of her house. Strawhats, Kid members, a few Heart gangsters, and pink hair that definitely belonged to one Jewelry Bonney. Tashigi tensed, wondering why hey were gathered in front of her house, then she saw a familiar flash of vermillion hair.

Isuka. She’s early.

Eagerly Tashigi swung her duffle across her chest and tightened the straps. Shigure was adjusted on her belt before she took off at a jog toward the group.

“Iz! Iz!” Tashigi shouted, ignoring the group of her neighbors that she would have to see every day afterwards, and picked up her pace. She may or may not have been waving her arms excitedly.

“Tash!” Isuka broke through the group of gangsters. Tashigi could see her motorcycle had been the center of attention.

Isuka and Tashigi collided in a wild hug. They teetered momentarily, as two people as clumsy as them should not be doing anything more strenuous than walking, before falling backwards laughing.

“You’re early.” She gasped, giggling and sitting up.

“I figured you’d not work until sunset if you knew I was coming.” Isuka chucked, swiping auburn hair from her eyes.

“Gee, aren’t you smart, you must be some kind of detective of something.” Tashigi said sarcastically, with love, and Isuka snorted.

“C’mon, when you came to me I served you food and beer.” Isuka said and got her feet, her knees cracked. “Oh, ow, old.”

“You should hear my elbows when I do push-ups.” Tashigi snickered, holding out her hand and Isuka helped her to her feet. “It is the most uncomfortable popping. The best I can offer you is fried chicken and a six pack split between us.”

“Ah, true luxury you have here in the city.” Isuka said and swung her arm around Tashigi’s neck. “Ice cream and regency films afterwards thought, right?”

“I’m not an animal.” Tashigi snorted and looped her arm around Isuka’s waist. “You got a game plan for tomorrow? Also how are you wearing jeans?”

Isuka fished a folded piece of paper out of her back pocket. It was a color coded schedule with addresses and times. Lunch was even penciled in.

“I’d loose the skin on my legs if my bike went out on the road.” Isuka laughed.

“Detailed spreadsheet, proper road safety, gods I’ve missed you.” Tashigi fanned her face with the folded paper.

“I’ve missed you too.” Isuka sighed. “No one else I know dresses like a walking traffic accident.” She picked teasingly at Tashigi shirt.

There was a bark of laughter and Tashigi looked up. They’d reached the curious gangsters crowded around Isuka’s bike. Zoro’s scarred eyebrow was raised and he had a curious glint in his eye, but there was a amused twitch in his lips.

“Mocking me, Roronoa?” Tashigi asked, eyes narrowed.

“I said nothing.” Zoro grinned. “Was merely agreeing with your friend here.”

“It’s not that bad, right?” Tashigi asked, looking at Isuka.

“Highlighter pink, Weenie.” Isuka sighed. Tashigi winced. It had been on sale.

“Who is your friend, Tashigi?” Nami asked popping up next to Zoro. She eyed Isuka suspiciously, fiercely protective of her family.

“This is Detective Kugi Isuka.” Tashigi announced. “From Loguetown.” She felt like two portions of her life were colliding. Isuka, who’d known her longer than anyone else, watching her become the straightlaced officer and detective that the Strawhats knew her as. Her oldest friend had the rare ability to transport her back to those carefree days, which the Strawhats had perhaps never seen.

Save perhaps Zoro, but Zoro had seen much more of her than most people, old boyfriends included. _I suppose they are going to have to get used to each other if Isuka joins the G-5_.

Many of the gangsters cleared out at the mention of detective and Loguetown.

“I feel as though I have heard that name before.” Robin mused, tapping her chin with a long finger. Tashigi twitched, remember that they’d all been there for the phone call to Ace. _Let’s get out of here before someone remembers and calls him_.

She made to drag Isuka through the Strawhats.

“Isuka-chan.” Sanji cooed and twirled forward, stopping Tashigi’s progress. Swordswoman Tashigi shook her fist at him, while Saint Tashigi paced back and forth. He kissed her hand and Isuka backed up. Tashigi carefully pushed Sanji off. “How can it be that we’ve never met before?”

“Pure luck.” Isuka said nervously, eyes glancing between the various Strawhats. Tashigi could see her rolling her shoulders up towards her ears in apprehension. _We need to get to the apartment, this is overwhelming_.

“You. You. You.” There was a flurry of elbows and the wild crimson head of Eustass Kid popped between Zoro and Sanji. “You,” he pointed a thick finger at a wide eyed Isuka, “have a Cross X 500, how?” Tashigi glanced over at Isuka’s familiar black bike.

“Oh, uh, well it was the only thing that the fire didn’t touch.” Isuka stuttered and Kid narrowed his eyes. Tashigi intervened.

“She inherited it.” Tugging Isuka’s arm, she led her friend towards her apartment. “We should go, early morning and all.” Tashigi shoved between Isuka’s shoulder blades, allowing her friend to pick up her green duffle bag beside her motorbike.

“It was lovely meeting you all.” Isuka tossed behind her as Tashigi shoved her across the yard. Succubus Tashigi wanted to bring Zoro with them, but conceded that it would be awkward with Isuka there. “Seeing them all at once is really intimidating.” Isuka confessed as the apartment door shut behind them.

“Always.” Tashigi said with a huffing laugh. “None of them do anything by half.”

“Is it weird I missed the absolute strangeness of Grandline City gangsters? The organized crime in Loguetown is not nearly as colorful.” Isuka peered out the kitchen window. “Or as nosy.”

Tashigi peered over Isuka’s shoulder to find her neighbors still crowded around Isuka’s bike, but most of them were staring up at her apartment. Nami appeared to be organizing the Strawhats in what could only be a stealth mission to eavesdrop on Tashigi’s evening with her friend. Which apparently involved tying a rope around a bouncing Luffy.

“I hope they don’t dangle him from a tree again.” Tashigi muttered. She made eye contact with Zoro on the ground and made a shooing motion. She got a thumbs up.

“And what’s going on there?” Isuka asked as Zoro herded the ornery Strawhats and hangers on away from Tashigi’s apartment.

“Huh? What do you mean?” Tashigi asked as she pawed through her various drawers of takeout menus. Cluck’s Chicken Hut was buried somewhere between Octopus Sushi and Galileo’s Pizza.

“Considering we are both terrible at reading facial cues, I could tell everything on that man’s face clear as day.” Isuka scoffed. “Mixed in with the amusement and general long-suffering affection is a healthy bit of lust, for you.”

Tashigi wacked her head on the cabinets in surprise. Sucking her breath between her teeth, she rubbed the back of her head. She shoved her glasses into her hair and sighed as Isuka leaned smugly against the kitchen table.

“Fine.” Tashigi sighed, rubbing her eyes. “I am…sleeping with? Roronoa Zoro.”

“You sound usure.”

“I don’t really have an appropriate term for just having sex with someone.”

“Fuck buddies.”

“Yeah, not too comfortable with that.” Tashigi laughed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “I would consider it stress relief, except Zoro is using it to make me stop working so I am no longer stressed.”

“I need to know no other information than that, I approve.” Isuka beamed.

“You approve?” Tashigi laughed as she picked up the phone, laminated menu in hand. “Gods you sound like a parent evaluating a boyfriend.”

“I am. Can’t wait for Smoker and Hina to get at him.”

“They will never know. You will never tell them.” Tashigi pointed at Isuka. “Zoro is not my boyfriend. He is just…a man I have sex with because it’s good and…yeah.”

“Succinct.” Isuka laughed.

“Shut up.” Tashigi grumbled, face burning, and dialed Cluck’s Chicken Hut.

Once their order was put in for delivery the two settled on the couch, putting in the first of many Regency movies. Isuka glanced into the study over her shoulder.

“Did that case get harder?” She asked, eyes mapping the pictures of victims and red yarn lines tracing to other boards.

“It’s drugs now, not just trafficking.” Tashigi sighed. “The extensive reach of this group is disheartening. They managed to find the blind spots in CSS, have knowledge of gang territories, and have no qualms about harming innocents.”

“Most gangs at least have some kind of credo that involves protecting the civs in their territory.” Isuka mused. “The level of protection is entirely based off the gang though. When I was on the Whitebeard taskforce, we could never get anything out of the civs in their territory because he didn’t charge rent or base protection off fear.”

“I don’t think this gang has civs or territory.” Tashigi sighed. “Judging by Baines and perhaps what I’ve gathered from this drug operation, it’s all about money or, ugh, business monopoly.”

“That’s unsettling.” Isuka whispered. “I know there are more gangsters out there than the brightly colored and stupidly honorable, but it’s still hard when you meet them.”

“Blackbeard.”

“Dolflamingo.”

“Kaido.”

“What a great city we have.” Tashigi laughed sadly. “Gods, Booger, everything is a mess. Did you know I got unnecessarily beat up the other day because my awareness is shot? It was terrible. This case has repeatedly made me feel like I’m a horrible investigator, but I always thought when push came to shove, I’d be able to fight my way out. Now, I’m not even sure I can do that.” She sniffed and felt something wet on her face. _Not again_.

“Oh, Weenie…” Isuka said sympathetically.

“Smoker looks at me like I’m going to die any day now.” Tashigi lamented. “He thinks I have the same death wish my father did, but I don’t! My father in mourning, it was grief that made him reckless. I’m just…I’m just…” Tashigi put her forehead in her hand. “I’m just so angry.”

“You can only do your best, Tashigi.” Isuka wrapped her arms around her old friend. “You have a right to be angry at how helpless you feel, as long as you don’t give up.”

“I will never give up.” Tashigi whispered, staring out her living room window at the coming sunset. “But I fear the night will get darker before the dawn.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first One Piece fic. I hope I do a good job and I hope ya'll like it.


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